Digimon Universe
by Super Shadowsonic
Summary: Sequel to Broken Mirror. 3 years After TK and Takeru saved their worlds everything seemingly went back to normal, well as normal as things can get. However they only delayed a secret enemies ambitions. They created a being of immense power that terrorizes the Multi-Verse wanting to claim the powers of not just one Child of Hope, but all of them. It's a battle that spans dimensions.
1. The Birth of Chronomon

_**Digimon Universe part 1**_

"_**Chronomon is Born,"**_

There is always another side to a story, another way for things to play out, and another view…

However, these different stories are not meant to meet and are to remain separate. It is what's right and proper.

There are always forces that exist that muck up the works of this usually well oiled machine. Sometimes, beings become too powerful, or creatures become things they were truly not meant to become. It happens on numerous occasions, more times than anyone even realizes. Some things are just too beyond anyone to know, but this time. The force is too great, too dangerous, and completely out of control.

"CONTAIN IT!" ordered a voice of a boy as he raised a strange device in his hands in the air. It let out a brilliant show of lights as it forced something back, he could tell it was somewhat working due to the creature's growls. "Can't hold this back…much longer…"

"Don't worry Caichi, I will assist," came a voice above the boy. "GAIA FORCE!" the creature lashed out with a brilliant white light that fought against the beast and pushing it back further.

"Good, that's working keep it up!" the boy ordered as the creature persisted with his attacks pushing back the strange formless beast. "Now, close the gate!"

"Roger!" came another boy's reply considerable much younger then the first. He raised his device similar in nature to the other boy's just as a golden gate sealed back the power. Both boys breathed a sigh of relief. "HolyAngemon, how did your end go?" the blonde child asked into his device. A ball of light came out it in response and exploded into a show of light to reveal an angel dressed in all white, with a white blade on his right arm, and a black helmet.

"It shall hold…for now…" came his reply in short breaths.

"Good job, Hakeru," Caichi said as he gave the small boy his congrats in the form of a hair ruffling. Hakeru smiled up at Caichi happy to be of service.

"Thanks…I never thought that you and I would have to go on a mission together,"

"Don't count yourself short kiddo, the others are great, but it's the eight of us that keeps the multiverse in line. Just like any other TK in the universe, if something happened to you, I doubt we'd get that far along,"

Hakeru smiled up at the brunette, "Thanks Caichi!"

"Still…" Caichi turned around to stare back at the golden gate that Hakeru had sealed. "All these energy spikes are starting to happen more frequent ever since the Prime Universe and the Noir Universe came in contact with one another. This keeps up, it might actually start affecting other worlds,"

Hakeru looked at the black metallic floor in shame. "This is all my fault…"

"What?" WarGreymon stated in surprise having been focusing on making sure the gate was sealed along with HolyAngemon. His armor is a shining white as well as his skin, and on his back the crest of courage shines orange.

"Yeah, how is this at all your fault?"

"Caichi, this gate is my responsibility, and I let outsiders tamper with it,"

"You did what you thought was right and allowed them to solve the problem and without compromising our existence,"

"But-,"

"Caichi, Hakeru," came a voice from Caichi's Digivice. Caichi held it up for a holo-screen of another boy to pop out, this boy having red hair, black eyes, and along with a white button up shirt was the only thing seen.

"Knoshiro, what's up?" Caichi answered casually. Knoshiro sighed while shaking his head.

"I need you both back here now," he responded.

"Why?"

"JUST GET HERE!" Knoshiro hollered annoyed. Caichi was surprised with the tone but relented with a nod. He turned to Hakeru who held up his digivice to create a portal of light. Hakeru and HolyAngemon walked in first and then Caichi and WarGreymon soon followed. When they stepped out they found themselves in a large computer room with a giant pineapple emblem below their feet. Both boys' dress attire consisted with black and white. On Hakeru the boy has on a white hoody, with black shorts, and black and white trainers. With Caichi he has on a white shirt, white sport gloves, with black shorts, and black shoes. They looked to a boy sitting in front of the large computer screen who has on a white short sleeved button up shirt, white gloves on his hands, black pants, and black and white sneakers. He looked older then Hakeru, but younger then Caichi. "Caichi, how did things go?"

"Not too bad I guess, lucky Hakeru was there though," the boy responded casually. Knoshiro nods as he only gave Hakeru a brief glance. "What's up?" Caichi asked.

"Well for you two," Knoshiro gestured to Caichi and WarGreymon. "Lora and Garudamon could use some back up facing off against a couple of rogue mutants,"

"What, mutants?" Caichi questioned with his arms folded. "She's more than qualified to handle a pack of mutants!"

"Well she called for backup, and I already told her your own your way. You know she'll get super ticked if you don't show now," Knoshrio said casually while looking at his computer with lack of emotion. However, it was easy to see a little smirk work it's way at the end of his lips.

"Come on! Garudamon made it to mega level like everybody else!" Caichi said throwing his hands up while at the same time opening up another portal of light.

"Well I for one don't enjoy going mega, it's exhausting and I can't fit anywhere…" groaned MegaKabuterimon from his spot on the floor where he is currently resting. His shell is totally white while his underbelly and arms are black, along with his horn.

"Just gotta get used to it," WarGreymon stated as he followed Caichi into the portal. When they left Hakeru sighed as if feeling like his usefulness was all used up. He wondered what Likari was up to right now. Probably doing something cool like restoring one of the realities of a few worlds or something like that. HolyAngemon merely smirked at his partner as the angel went over to go converse with MegaKabuterimon about something. Hakeru glanced over at Knoshiro who seemed busy on his super jumbo computer thing. Sensing no conversation would go anywhere with him he went over to a chair on the other side of the gigantic room with the crest of Hope marked on the back. The emblem is colored yellow as it looks like the sun in shining down a ray of light below. He hopped into the tall chair with a sigh and then laid his head down on the table.

Noting the silence Knoshiro's eyes left the jumbo computer screen to look at the spiky blonde haired boy at the giant round conference table that has twelve seats. Knoshiro hadn't said anything to the boy previously for fear of not knowing how to ask such a task of him. He is one of the youngest, but unfortunately one of the most powerful as well. He needed Hakeru to perform a very important task, but feared the consequences if things went bad. More so for Hakeru then himself. Finally, he took a breath and stood up from his seat to walk over to Hakeru. Famatto was going to murder him if he found out, or more like when he finds out. Knoshiro gently nudged the younger boy which made Hakeru slowly open his eyes to look up expecting Famatto, but instead saw Knoshiro who looked greatly nerved. Hakeru sat up to look at the boy who still was a bit taller than him despite the high chair.

"What's wrong?" Hakeru asked the redhead. Knoshrio scratched the back of his head in thought struggling to come up with words.

"Listen…uh…HK…" Knoshrio began fumbling with his words. Hakeru noted this when he used his nickname.

"Yeah," Hakeru responded still a little in shock that Knoshrio was speaking with him so directly. It wasn't like they didn't like each other, but over so many years of fighting and such the two never really made a connection. Upon numerous observations of other worlds, Hakeru could say that was how it was for every TK and Izzy in the entire multiverse. It was like a rule of some kind. Knoshiro would give out orders, and on the extremely rare times he received solo missions he would receive his orders from him. But that would be all it was, information, no banter, no conversation, no comments, or anything of the such.

"Well…first I wanna say sorry for ignoring you when you came in with Caichi," Knoshiro stated firstly. He didn't want Hakeru getting the impression he didn't like him, but he didn't want to say anything to the boy until he was sure on what words he would choose. "Secondly…I need your help,"

"You do?" Hakeru questioned immediately interested. Noting his interest was caught Knoshiro felt better about continuing on. He was a little thankful for his childish curiosity.

"Yeah, you see, those energy spikes that have been going on in your sector, do you know what that means?"

"I think it has something to do with the pathways between the dimensions, right?"

Knoshiro smirked as he nods glad that Hakeru understood that much, "That's right, and that's why anytime the spikes get out of control you and one of the others had to go calm it down, since you control the gate way to that realm. You understand everyone has an important job to do, correct?" Hakeru nods understanding, which actually surprised Knoshiro thinking the child never thought on such things. "Well every time any MagnaAngemon connected to the Crest of Hope uses Gate of Destiny they wind up in that void. Unless they had power like ours, they'd be stuck there and eventually they'd fall apart not being able to adjust to the intense energy that flows there. You understand that right?" Hakeru nods again but clearly with a look of wanting Knoshiro to get to the point. "Well, that mass of energy that was recently sealed there is becoming an issue, and starting to develop into a mutant, and a serious one…"

"I thought something was wrong…it was causing two dimensions to almost collide with one another,"

"Really?" Knoshiro gasped surprised he hadn't known of this. Hakeru then rubbed his arm with regret.

"I…kinda…" Hakeru was now at a lost for words this time as he tried to explain. Luckily, HolyAngemon and MegaKabuterimon weren't far and were listening in on the down low.

"Hakeru and I decided not to intervene until it was absolutely necessary. We couldn't risk too much exposure to the sphere. An odd thing occurred that the orb started to actually sicken us both to such an extent I fell to my rookie form…like we were dying…"

"Dying!" Knoshiro gasped in shock not believing his ears as he then turned to Hakeru with worry edged on his face. He had noticed the boy was oddly more tired and slightly sluggish lately.

"I'm fine now," Hakeru said quickly to relieve the other boy of his worry.

"How do you know that, I'd better contact Ryou to check and see," Knoshrio began as he turned to walk away, but Hakeru grasped the older boy's arm with two of his before he could walk off.

"Really, Knoshiro I'm fine. The illness passed, my strength is coming back, but the Chrono Core is still a problem…"

"Chrono Core?"

Hakeru nods, "That's what it's called. A sphere filled with super concentrated energy, from various evils and purities. It was greatly imbalanced so the prime TK and Noir TK both used their dark attributes to balance and restore the worlds that way…but in doing so only gave it more power. I fixed the boundaries as soon as I could before you guys could notice too much happening. I wanted to fix things before it got out of hand, but Caichi wound up helping out anyway…"

"That's why no one was alerted…" Knoshrio muttered. "That was very dangerous, try not to take so many chances,"

"Alright…" Hakeru said with an eye roll that didn't assure him at all.

"Now what was it you needed us to do?" HolyAngemon cut in.

"Yes, that's right!" Knoshiro exclaimed snapping back to attention. "I need you, if you can, to try and see if you can somehow harness this Chrono Core. It's power is growing and starting to have odd effects on other worlds. I'm sorry that I have to send you solo, but everyone is currently working on something, and MegaKabuterimon had to go mega to push back a particularly strong surge. If you want I can at least see if Kriori or Famatto could-,"

"No, I'm sure HolyAngemon and I can handle it!" Hakeru exclaimed with excitement as he hops out his chair. He hasn't been on a solo mission in ages, and was dying to just have some time with him and his partner. HolyAngemon however seemed unsure.

"I'm not that tired," MegaKabuterimon added in sharing a similar standing as HolyAngemon.

"Yes, you are, you can't go into the belly of the beast at half strength," HolyAngemon said.

"Still the most powerful Chosen MegaKabuterimon though," he protested.

"But that doesn't make us unbeatable,"

"Right, so leave it to us," Hakeru stated.

"I just need you to see if you can contain it or harness it. If it's too much come back, don't overdo it," Knoshrio said strictly pointing out his white gloved index finger for emphasis.

"We won't, promise," Hakeru said raising his digivice and opening a portal of light. Knoshiro had such an awful feeling as he watched the boy stepped through the portal with the angel at his side.

"Knoshiro I'm really not that tired, we should go back them up,"

"But-,"

"Really, I needed to go mega to push back a _surge_. That only counts as a fraction. I know HolyAngemon is one bad Seraphimon, but he's gonna need some help,"

"Knoshiro nods, "We'll go after him, but we gotta make sure everyone knows what were up to before we go,"

* * *

Hakeru stepped up to a giant golden gate with the emblem of the Crest of Hope on it That gate was circular and took up the entire corridor top to bottom, and left to right. It looked so official and super important. Which it was considering this was the very hub to the very center of the universe. "Well, here we are, my sector,"

"That power is really fierce, lashing out at the door like that," HolyAngemon muttered hearing the rapid bangs and growls. "What kind of monster is this?"

"A fierce one, best to go in hot and ready," Hakeru said raising his Digivice. HolyAngemon nods in understanding.

"**HOLYANGEMON DIGIOLVE TO…SERAPHIMON!**" the new digivolved angel has ten shining white wings, with white armor and black trim on the edges, a golden cross on his helmet, with the emblem of the crest of Hope on his chest on a plaque, and the most noticed feature was the blazing white aura that flowed around his body. When the angel drew his blade it was as black as night. "Ready?"

"Ready," Hakeru said raising his digivice. The gate slowly opened from the middle a bit, but the rush of power released almost knocked the pair off their feet. "This is intense!" he said bring his arm up to block some of the wind out his face.

"We should head back, this is too great!" Seraphimon advised copying his partner's actions.

"I promised that if we couldn't than we couldn't, but I wanna at least know if we can or not so let's at least try!" Hakeru said stepping forward as he fought through the powerful wind. Seraphimon knew this was a poor choice, but he felt that his partner would not be satisfied until otherwise. He had no choice as he hoisted the boy onto his left shoulder and pressed on into the belly of the beast.

* * *

Knoshiro and MegaKabuterimon arrive out a giant portal of light to compensate for the Digimon's size. Knoshiro notices that the gate to Hakeru's sector is creaked open possibly only wide enough for them to slip through. Knoshiro pulled out his handheld computer complete with the pineapple insignia on the back and yellow in color with a touch screen. He looked at it closely then turned his attention to the gate.

"It seems like the energy settled down a bit…" Knoshiro began.

"We should hurry," MegaKabuterimon said as quickly rushed forward toward the gate with his passenger riding on his head. MegaKabuterimon griped the gate with all his appendages then used all his might to push the gate open a little more so he could fit through. Once opened wide enough they could see inside to the empty white void. Inside they saw the Chrono Core had settled considerably, but what they also saw shook them to their own cores. They saw two figures floating in the abyss, both small in stature. One looked like a Patamon with two shades of white, and the other was a boy. Knoshiro and MegaKabuterimon instantly were alarmed as the giant beetle Digimon rushed in to retrieve both Digidestined and Digimon. MegaKabuterimon placed Patamon in one hand and sat Hakeru on his head so Knoshiro could secure him.

"_Interesting creatures you all are…" _a voice came from seemingly everywhere. The ones who gain power through knowledge almost stopped breathing. The voice itself was scary enough, but the fact the voice sounded EXACTLY like Hakeru's was even scarier. They turned to the core which was the only thing there.

"D-Did…that thing just talk?" MegaKabuterimon stuttered.

"_Yes it did, but there's no need for such an uncomfortable air. I relish the fact that you have so much knowledge in that mind of yours, I wish to gain knowledge of my own_,"

Knoshiro ignored the speaking Chrono Core for a moment to check Hakeru. He was alive, but the pulse was faint. The boy's clothes were tattered, and torn. He has bleeding cuts on his forehead and side, and he looked paler then his hoody. Knoshiro glared at the core. He felt such anger at not only the core but himself. In trying to inform everyone on what was going on, he had taken longer than expected to go actually back him up. So much of himself told him not to task the child with the heavy task, but in some way the child was successful. However, this begged the question of why the Core now had a consciousness compared to the beastly yelling and why the voice sounded like Hakeru. MegaKabuterimon wanted so badly to fight, but feared the safety of his injured friends and the safety of his partner and himself. MegaKabuterimon eased back ever so slightly as he backed away and toward the exit. The core let out a childish laughter.

"_Come on Knoshiro, you don't wanna play_?" the core teased as a slight glow overcame the orb. Acting on impulse, MegaKabuterimon raised his horn to shoot out a powerful _Horn Buster_ attack. The attack slammed into the orb, and thus created a good dust cloud that provided much needed cover for escape. When the dust cleared the giant beetle was gone and the gate was closed. "_Whatever, doesn't matter to me. There are tons of other Digidestined I can play with…"_


	2. You're Not the Only One

_**Digimon Universe part 2**_

"_**You're Not the Only One…"**_

TK yawned as he scratched his eyes. Boy were things starting to get dull for him. After the defeat of Malomyotismon and the discovery of Digidestined worldwide he felt pretty confident that things were gonna get boring. Personally, he always had doubts about if the Real World could coexist with the Digital World. He knew humankind weren't exactly the most accepting kind, and that Digimon weren't the most acceptable creatures. Oddly, with all that's been happening that's been the least of his concerns. He's been feeling this odd sensation that keeps nagging at the back of his mind. Like something was wrong in the universe, but things were going too well for something to be wrong in his opinion.

"TK, are you listening?" came Kairi's question to her oblivious friend. TK turned his head to her then to the rest of the group who decided to stop and turned to the rest of the group who gave him questioning looks. With him are his friends Cody, Yolei, Davis, and Ken. The group had decided to stop for pizza after school as a way of doing something out of the norm, seeing as that's the most excitable thing they can do.

"Yeah, why?" TK responded.

"Because I asked you something and you didn't say anything,"

"That's because I was thinking,"

"Yeah, well you've had on your "thinking" face for quite a while now,"

"Is something bothering you?" Cody asked his DNA digivolving partner.

"Hard to say…" TK said scratching his head.

"You can tell us,"

"No, it's really hard to say because I don't really know,"

"Come on, there's either something wrong or there isn't. Because we only beat MaloMyotismon a month ago, and I don't want anything getting in the way of us enjoying ourselves," Davis stated proudly to which his Digimon Demiveemon agreed to promptly.

"Well you and Patamon better get with the rest of us soon, cause I for one am ready to take one powerful cat nap," Gatomon said from Kairi's lap.

"We can't help it…" Patamon groaned.

"It's like this nagging feeling that just doesn't wanna go away, and worst it keeps getting stronger," TK groaned. He so desperately wanted to relax, but when you can feel impending danger on the horizon it kinda kills the mood.

"Have you had it before?" Ken asked before he sipped his soda.

"…Once before…" TK said with thought while giving Kairi a look. Kairi was confused until her face showed realization.

"Oh, really," Kairi said now worried herself.

"Okay, back up and kick things into reverse," Yolei exclaimed raising her hands up. "I was trying to ignore all this doom talk but you reeled me back in!"

"They never even said it was bad…" Davis muttered with narrowed eyes.

"Tell us what's going on,"

"Well…you guys may not remember, but four years ago there was this storm that had struck the entire planet at one time," Kairi began.

"Oh, that storm that defied all types of forecast in the world?" Yolei questioned curiously.

"Storm?" Cody questioned curiously.

"You may've been too young to remember it Cody," Yolei reasoned.

"What happened?"

"There was this ginormous black cloud that somehow was able to surround the entire planet. What's weirder is that this cloud caused the weather to go bananas. Earthquakes, floods, lightning storms, rain storms, you name a natural disaster and it was happening all at once,"

"Whoa…" Cody muttered in awe.

"It took the entire planet a couple of months to bounce back, but even to this day no one has even an idea of how that happened," Ken stated somewhat puzzled. He turned his attention to TK and Kairi to see the girl looking into the sky and TK looking down at the ground and scratching his head. "But I think the mystery is something you two have the answer to,"

"What, oh that's silly," TK said with closed eyes as he waved his hand at Ken.

"Might as well spill it was kinda your fault," Gatomon said.

"W-What, it wasn't-well it kinda-wait no it wasn't my fault," TK stuttered out.

"In a way it was though," Kairi said agreeing with her Digimon.

"Okay, I wanna know now. I thought that was just the big man in the sky showing us whose boss. So what's up?" Davis said thoroughly annoyed with the back and forth. "Was it a storm or not?"

"Well…putting it simply… it was actually our very reality falling apart," Kairi summed up simply.

At this the other four stopped what they were doing and stared at the girl in wonder. "What?" Cody questioned.

"See…there was this other world, kinda like ours, but different. It also had another set of Digidestined, so all of the Original Digidestined had a double on that other world," TK explained.

"Yeah, and it turned out that TK's double was the craziest out of all of them," Gatomon muttered to which no one heard.

"Did you see us?" Davis asked excited to the fact of another him.

"No," both storytellers said as if they rehearsed that portion of the story.

"Gosh, another Davis, that in itself sounds scary," Yolei visibly shivered.

"Now what about this feeling?" Ken asked.

"Well, while we were trying to fix the problem this weird power was making Patamon and I feel all weird…"

"You guys were gushing out with sweat while yelling your heads off," Kairi said not letting TK play down what happened. "You guys were dying," She said it without a hint of humor insinuating that this was no over exaggeration or a joke.

"You almost died TK?" Cody asked for clarity.

"It only felt like I was dying," TK assured.

"TK, we were dying," Patamon said.

"Okay fine, we were dying, but we didn't. We made it through okay," TK said throwing his hands up.

"Well what about this time?" Davis asked curiously with a small subtle hint of worry.

"Well as you can see I'm not gushing out sweat or yelling my head off, so I think I'll be okay. Besides, it's not really my safety that's worrying me,"

"Then what is it?" Kairi asked.

"…I don't know, weird, but who knows it might've been too much pizza," TK said sitting back. He didn't want to worry his friends with problems like these. He hated being the source of a problem and causing those close to him to get involved. Not that there is a problem, he keeps telling himself. He suddenly felt a sudden jolt that felt like a noise maker going off in his head. Patamon felt the same thing, and unfortunately they had just about the same amount of subtlety as a parade.

"What's wrong?" Kairi asked worry lacing her eyes.

"Shivers, wonder where that came from," TK wondered as he sipped his soda.

"You both had shivers at the same time?" Gatomon questioned with a raised eyebrow.

"Well we're all eating at the same time too aren't we?" Patamon countered albeit childish. The catlike Digimon simply rolled her eyes. It was this time TK chose to check his watch.

"Oh would you look at the time, I promised I meet up with Matt today. Well if I don't wanna be as late as Davis on a bad day I'd better get going,"

"That's pretty late," Cody commented.

"Sitting. Right. Here," Davis growled.

"We know," TK stated standing up with Patamon on his head. He waved to them then rushed off.

"What was that about?" Yolei questioned.

"Maybe he wants to be left alone," Poromon guessed.

"He just really doesn't like talking about what happened," Kairi said sadly. "It really shook him up pretty good,"

"What else happened?" Opamon asked.

"Well…ya see the other version of the Original Digidestined, weren't all that friendly,"

"Evil Twins!" Davis exclaimed somewhat excited.

"Not evil, more like twisted…and TK's double was the worst. He called himself King Takeru, and he managed to take over the Real World and the Digital World," Kairi explained which made everyone present suddenly grow shocked.

"So…" Ken began.

"Picture the Digimon Emperor…but much, much worse," Gatomon said. "He used his powers to take control of the minds of Digimon, and then used them to conquer the real world. It turns out he was able to do it all in a couple of months, not even a full year,"

"He…conquered everything…in only a couple of months time?"

"Yeah, and what's worst is TK got trapped in that world for a while. He was treated pretty bad…"

"And what hit harder was how close that reality was to ours. There were so many similarities that it made one wonder were there really a lot of differences. I guess that's always bothered TK, him actually becoming a tyrant. Even though that TK was around Cody's age, he brought the world, the Digimon, and even the Digidestined to their knees. No one could stop him on his world,"

"I'm betting TK being the guy he is wanted to stop him huh?" Davis questioned to which Kairi nods.

"Yeah, the fight nearly destroyed everyone and everything. TK was so into it he almost attacked Tai and Matt,"

"Wow, are you serious?" Yolei questioned.

"That's gotta be hard," Cody said. "We've only seen ourselves as doing the right thing, so I guess to see us in the role of the villain can be pretty scary,"

"Especially when we see we're good at it…" Wormon stated sadly with a glance at Ken.

"Well we all knew TK wouldn't turn into that, because we believed in him. I think he's stronger for it, we all are honestly,"

"I don't know this for sure, but I don't think he's over the whole thing," Ken stated. "I think he might be scared of himself,"

"That could be true too…" Cody said in a very curious voice.

* * *

TK decided that getting some time alone before heading back home would do him so good. He knew Matt was at band practice right now, but figured using him as cover was good enough. Besides, he wasn't lying, technically he was meeting up with him. Just much later in the day, or even tomorrow. TK looked to the sky to see a crystal blue.

"It doesn't make sense, if the worlds are in trouble again why don't I see anything wrong?" TK wondered aloud.

"Maybe nothing is wrong, and we're just sensing something here," Patamon suggested.

"Doubt it…" TK said. Suddenly, he heard a bunch of static coming from his pocket. TK reached in it to pull out his D3. "Uh, hello?" TK questioned feeling silly for talking into it.

"…_.H-H-H…a….prime….ru….pleas….sta….ard…..alert…."_

Then the static faded away and then nothing as the screen returned to being blank. "Well, that definitely gets a five out of ten on the weird meter,"

"Only five?"

"I mean it wasn't THAT weird to get anything higher. Plus, the static filled noise wasn't helping it's grade either. Kinda hard to terrify someone with a bad reception,"

"Sounded kinda like a warning,"

"Oh great, it's always the warnings that come in all staticy, but threats seem to come in crystal clear. I might need a new service provider,"

"Well jokes aside, I think we might need to talk to someone about this. Izzy might be our best bet," Patamon stated.

"I don't think we need to make this a thing ya know. So what if a couple of cooky guys feel like the worlds are going to end, we haven't gotten any proof of it yet,"

"That's why we should go poking around a bit, just to make sure,"

TK sighed, "Fine we'll do it your way, but we won't tell the others yet,"

"Agreed,"

"Well, where should we start?" TK asked with folded arms.

"How about we start…by checking the boundaries?"

"And how do we do that?" TK asked with a cocked up eyebrow while looking up at Patamon. Patamon simply point a wing at a shop to which TK turned to the shop to see the glass shined brightly against the sun. Also noticing his than understood Patamon's meaning as his face took on realization. He turns to walk toward his home in a quickened pace. Thankfully it was only a few blocks away. The apartment complex came into sight as he broke out into a run. He hurried onto the elevator then punched in the number of his floor. After a few impatient foot tapings later TK hurried to his apartment, unlocked the door, and then hurried to the closest mirror in his bathroom. TK stared at it long and hard then held up his Digivice. Nothing was happening as TK seemed to wait and wait.

"Well I guess the worlds are still separate," Patamon said flying next to TK's head.

"No…something feels….off," TK said quite perturbed at the sensation despite no portal opening. Suddenly, TK received a message on his D-Terminal. He opened it up to see a message from Kairi. "'Izzy needs everyone for emergency meeting, says that Gennai is making it top priority', great,"

"Now what?" Patamon asked.

"We go, I mean not like something has happened or-," TK cut himself off as his eyes shot open wide as dinner plates. His pupils dilated to tiny little spheres as a rushing chill ran up his back. He could feel Patamon experience the same thing as they both turned around toward the mirror. Then they heard childish laughter coming from it.

"_Well, you look like a lot of fun, more fun than the other ones anyway…wanna play?"_

"T-T-TK…." Patamon muttered in utter shock and fear.

"Yeah…" TK responded in the same tone.

"What's this ranked?"

"Definitely…a nine…" Patamon resisted the urge to stare at TK in utter annoyance.

"How can anything be weirder then this?" At his words something began emerging from the portal. First thing that was noticed was a golden rod shooting out almost hitting TK in the head, than a helmeted head, a human like body with white shining wings on his back, and dressed as an angelic being.

"You had to ask…" TK groaned glancing at his partner. The angel Digimon leered down on them. The room was barely big enough to contain the Digimon in front of them. "…Do you know why Angemon is in my bathroom?"

"I don't know, why don't we ask him?"

"Uh, hey there um Angemon…wow this is weird…" TK said.

"Yet still not enough to be a ten?"

"Gosh Patamon just let it go!" At TK's words the Angemon raised his fist that was shrouded with intense holy energy. TK's eyes widened.

"TK!" Patamon dived at his partner.

"Digi-Armor Energize!" TK said quickly.

"_Fist of Fate_!"

* * *

"Where is TK?" Matt asked as the younger generation of Digidestined who had recently arrived.

"He said he was going to meet up with you," Kairi answered to which Matt just sighed too.

"Well does that mean we can start?" Davis asked.

"I suppose it might be okay to start now," Izzy said as he began typing on his computer. A monitor appeared on screen and then Gennai was seen looking into the room. "Alright Gennai we're here,"

"Great, I suggest everyone pay close attention for what I'm about to say is of the upmost importance," Gennai began as he looked to the room over as best he could. This was quite uncharacteristic for Gennai to go straight to the point in these type meetings. This new trait instantly put everyone on edge seeing as the situation must be dire. "Now, you all may be unaware of this but our reality is in danger again,"

"What!" questioned everyone in the room.

"Is it TK's evil double again?" Davis asked.

"How do you know about that?"

"Kairi just told us today after TK was acting all weird, well weirder,"

"Yes, well this does indeed involve the crest of hope," Gennai said as his eyes glanced around the room wanting to make eye contact with TK, but noticed he didn't see the boy. "Where is TK?"

"We don't know, but I sent him a message," Kairi answered. Everyone instantly noticed how Gennai's face sunk and the color drained.

"Am I too late…" Gennai muttered then turned to the Digidestined. "Before we talk about anything else you must find TK quickly!"

"What's happening?" Matt asked instantly growing worried.

"A genocide…" Gennai muttered. And no sooner did they hear an explosion sound through the air.

"What was that?" Tai yelled out.

"Trouble," Gatomons said with narrowed eyes.

* * *

"Oh my god this is so weird," TK said on the back of Pegasusmon as they try to escape the psychotic Angemon chasing them. TK wasn't the least bit happy about the Digimon destroying his home, and even less happy about trying to kill him and his Digimon. "What do you want?"

"_Fist of Fate,"_ he responded stretching out his fist to launch another golden blast. Pegasusmon took a sharp shot up then a sharp dive down dodging blast after blast. The flying Digimon however did not want to go too high else he risk his partner not able to handle the pressure or thin atmosphere. The Digimon dodged another blast then about faced.

"_Star Shower!" _The horse Digimon responded. The Angemon however began spinning his staff rapidly and fast enough to shatter each star that came his way.

"_Angel Staff!"_ The Angemon said sharply as he made his staff grow longer in an instant. Then with one swing knocked the flying horse and his partner out of the air.

"Whoa, since when could Angemon do that?" TK asked in shock as the sharp downfall made him hold onto his partner for dear life. Pegasusmon barely recovered enough do dodge another staff swing.

"They can't do that," Pegasusmon stated.

"Or is it just you?"

"Ignoring that," Pegasusmon performed a loop de loop dodging another beam. "What do we do?"

"I don't know, maybe-,"

"_Angel Rain!" _Beams shot out the Angemon's wings. The blast only slammed into Pegasusmon's side as he went careening toward the ground. The flying Digimon slammed into the ground leaving behind a dirt trail from where he landed on a rooftop.

"Okay, they definitely can't do that…" TK muttered.

"_You aren't any fun either," _whined a childish voice from the Angemon without the angel moving his lips.

"What the-,"

"_I thought for sure this was the Prime World, or maybe it was that other world. That TK was really strong…although he was still a kid…Prime TK should be a teen at this point,"_

"What do you want…" TK groaned as his Digimon was trying to get his bearings.

"_To collect…gather…and assimilate," _

"Why does your voice, sound so familiar?"

"TK, that's your voice," Pegasusmon said weakly as he tried standing. "I'd know it anywhere, that was your voice when you were little,"

"What?"

"_Well since you're not the Prime TK then I must keep looking. Become a part of me," _The voice said as the Angemon extended his hand.

"_Desperado Blasters!"_

"_Static Force!"_

Suddenly the Angemon was knocked away and down into the street below. TK blinked in shock then turned to see Paildramon, and Selphimon.

"You guys okay?" Paildramon asked hurrying over.

"A little shaken up, but we're good,"

"_Hey, no fair, I didn't invite you guys to play too!_" came the voice as Angemon took to the air.

"What's with this guy?" Selphimon wondered.

"Careful, don't let his appearance and level fool you. He's much stronger then a regular Angemon and with odd powers," Pegasusmon warned. True to Pegasusmon's words the Angemon extended his staff than swung a backhand swing to knock away the two ultimate Digimon. Pegasusmon was able to get his second wind now as he galloped toward TK for the boy to swing himself on his back then ride off to dodge another staff swing.

"This whole getting chased thing got old two minutes ago, we gotta fight back!" TK exclaimed at which Pegasusmon agreed wholeheartedly. The Digimon about faced Angemon.

"_Eqious Beam!"_ The horse Digimon exclaimed firing a green triangular beam from his forehead. The blast nailed the Angemon in the chest and sent him into the streets below. Pegasusmon gave chase hovering over the dust cloud. The angel staff extended again, but Pegasusmon was ready as he flanked to the side and unleashed a _Star Shower_ upon the downed foe. The dust cloud grew thicker with the pelting of the attacks. Eventually Pegasusmon halted to observe how much damage was done.

"Did you get him?" TK asked.

"Not sure…"

"TK!" called a voice from down below. TK turned to see Kairi and the other digidestined all rushing to the scene. "What's going on?"

"Hold on, stay back!" TK called. Suddenly the cloud of dust blew away to reveal a battered Angemon, however the angel still stood tall and strong as if his injuries were minor.

"_So…maybe you are the Prime…"_

"What are you talking about? Prime what?"

The Angemon glanced around to see Paildramon's guns pointed at him and Selphimon ready to attack, "_Well, that tears it, you must be the Prime. Not only do I feel your power, but the strength you give to the other Digimon here. Truly fascinating…but it seems this Angemon form won't be enough,"_

Suddenly, the Angemon was surrounded by a bright light as if…

"He's Digivolving!" Pegasusmon exclaimed.

"Quick, TK we have to DNA Digivolve!" Cody shouted.

"Right," TK nods as Pegasusmon landed back on the ground and changed back to Patamon. Patamon quickly changed into Angemon and then DNA digivolved with Ankylomon to form Shakkoumon.

"_Meet, SlashAngemon!" _The voice exclaimed as the new angel form revealed itself. This new Angemon has blades for forearms, bladed wings, grey armo, and various other sharp points on it's body. A blade protruding from his helmeted forehead, blue hair

"Izzy what is that?" Tai asked.

"I…don't understand…my Digianalyzer is coming up with anything!" Izzy exclaimed frustrated. "I have record of every Digimon in the Digital World, but he's not coming up!"

"_That's because this Angemon does not exist in your reality,"_

"What?"

"_I'm bored with this, now finish it and collect my prize,"_

"_Heavens Ripper!" _SlashAngemon rushed forward curled into a ball with his blades flashing wildly. It was only seconds later that he was behind the three ultimate Digimon and soon they collapsed as soon as they registered their bodies were in pain. They all separated into their rookie forms.

"_Now…for the assimilation of TK Prime," _SlashAngemon turned to TK and began walking toward TK.

"TK run!" Matt called.

"What is going on?" TK whined as saw the angel approach. Suddenly, a golden light spilled out his Digivice. The light was so bright, and it filled him with such power…a familiar power. "What is this?"

"_This should help give you a fighting chance, hurry and use it!"_ That sounded like his child voice again, but this time it was helping him. He was beyond confused, but you don't look a gifted horse in the mouth. SlashAngemon approached at a rapid speed ready to complete it's mission.

"If this day gets any weirder I may scream…" TK muttered. "**Here goes SACRED DIGIVOLUTION!**" Suddenly TK was transformed into pure energy as his body flew past SlashAngemon and into Patamon. Patamon instantly got super charged with energy. So much he had no choice but to use it. "**Patamon Celestial Digivolve to…Seraphimon!" **And after a great flash of light the holy angel himself stood there reborn anew. Everyone stared as the new angel made his presence known. "You're going down," he said drawing his Excalibur blade.

"_Heaven's Ripper!"_

"_Excalibur!"_

Both angels crossed paths in an instant both vanishing out of sight, but reappearing in opposite sides and with their back to each other. Seraphimon's appearance was short lived as both boy and Digimon separated from the great angel and simply became Patamon and TK. The other Digidestined rushed over in a panic.

"TK, are you alright?" Kairi asked getting to him so quickly she didn't even know how she outran her brother.

"I can't believe even Seraphimon couldn't stop him…" Izzy said in awe.

"I wouldn't say that…" TK moaned in pain but still a smirk on his face. "Took a page from Wargreymon's book," At this Tai smiled brightly.

"Yeah, it's over," Tai said relaxing.

"But, wait, what does he mean by that?" Davis looked over to see SlashAngemon turn around with no visible trouble or damage. "He's still here!"

"Trust me, only reason he got us was because of how many times we got him," Patamon said. At this random pieces of SlashAngemon began falling off. His wings, pieces of his armor, blade on his forehead, his bladed arms, and eventually his entire body began to slide apart as they burst into data pieces.

"Nice one, if Agumon were here, he'd be impressed," Tai said slapping TK on the shoulder.

"Ow," TK said sharply.

"So since when could you do that?" Cody asked with extreme wonder in his eyes.

"I was able to do that when I had my crest, but this doesn't make sense. I lost that power, how was I able to do it?"

"With a little help of course," came a voice from behind the group. Everyone turned to see a kid, but not just any kid. This kid wears black shorts, a white hoody, black trainers, and messy blonde hair. This boy was the spitting image of the child of hope when he was eight years old. "Hi, my name is Hakeru,"

"Yep that should do it," TK said simply then inhaled a deep breath. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"


	3. The Worlds As We Know It

_**Digimon Universe part 3**_

"_**The Worlds As We Know it"**_

_**A/N: Hey, so I read over this...and I did not like it. It was so rushed! I mean the errors were bothering me so bad that I reworked it. Nothing too new in the beginning but if you wanna grasp what's really going on I suggest reading.**_

* * *

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHH…." TK's scream finally tapered off until he was silent again. At his scream fading the other Digidestined removed their hands from the ears.

"You done?" Hakeru asked.

"Yeah that should about do it for now," TK responded seemingly gathering his wits.

"Good, because we have a lot to talk about," Hakeru said quickly as he grabbed TK's hand and began pulling him. "Come on hurry!"

"Wait, hold on," TK said jerking the other him to a stop. "Who are you?"

"Duh, I'm you, or your me, whatever the case we're the same…kinda…"

"I think you should take it from the top," Tai advised clearly speaking for everyon. Hakeru sighed as he reached into his pants pocket to pull out the first generation digivice. He raised it in the air and then a sudden bright flash of light blinded the Digidestined. When the light faded, they found themselves in the park. They all looked around in shock at getting there so quickly.

"Hey are you okay?" Cody voice cut off everyone's shock as the boy and Aramadillamon were trying to help Hakeru off the ground. Hakeru had a very pained expression on his face as his Digivice dropped to the ground. Matt, simply reacting to the situation, helped Cody get him onto a bench located behind him.

"Ugh…thanks…" Hakeru muttered in gratitude. He raised his hand and his Digivice suddenly floats through the air and into his hand again.

"Wow…who are you?"

"Like I said, my name is Hakeru Tikashi,"

"Hakeru?" Kairi questioned since it was very similar to Takeru.

"Yeah, it's just a play on words. In my dimension, each Digidestined's name includes their crest and the prime name. So Hope and Takeru come together to make Hakeru. It's like that for the others too,"

"How did you get us here, and are we still-," Izzy began.

"Yes we're still in your dimension. In my world the Digivice is quite a universal device. It controls everything and can do just about anything. It's basically like a key to opening pathways in other words," Hakeru shook his head as the pain on his face finally vanished. "But that's besides the point, I need your help TK,"

"Me?"

"Yes, you,"

"Why only him?" Daisuke asked.

"Well…it's very complicated, but I'll try to explain it-,"

"Everyone!" called a voice far off from them. They all turned to see Gennai rushing over to them. "Wow, I got so worried and thought something might've happened so I came to see what I could do," His eyes fell on Hakeru which made him frown at the young boy. "But I see you had assistance from elsewhere. So you must be the cause of our realities imbalance,"

"…In a way…I am," Hakeru said sadly as he looked to the ground.

"Well then return to your world so we can figure this out,"

"Gennai it isn't that simple. I may've caused it, but now, as I'm sure you know, hope is in jeopardy of vanishing from the multiverse,"

"Time out!" Mimi exclaimed while fixing her hands into a T. "Explain this from the top,"

"Okay, so as all of you know, or should know by now, there is more than one universe with you guys as Digidestined. My realm is actually the control center of it all. My group, along with others, makes sure the worlds stay stabilized and they don't overlap. Nothing is worse than two worlds colliding with each other, since they can cause cataclysmic results. Each one of my group is responsible for a key component in the universe. Courage oversees everyone and makes sure everyone does their job accordingly and by the book. Friendship is, in simplest terms, a powerful helper that assists all others in doing their tasks, so he's usually helping everyone else out. Love is in charge of the extermination of mutants that may tend to produce over time. Sincerity in is charge of the keeping the pathways and connections between the worlds clear of mutants and other harmful effects. Knowledge is basically the instructor to all of us and tells us how to do our jobs, and he's in control of the energy that flows through the entire multiverse. Reliability is in charge of being on the lookout for dangers that threaten a universe or universes, and he's a pretty good medic too. Now light, is an extremely important feature in the system, it can bring life to a barren world, and destroy one that should not exist. Light is in complete control of the universe basically,"

"Wow, those are our crest!" Sora exclaimed in awe.

"All of those jobs sound real important and necessary," Yolei agreed.

"Now I've got two questions. What are you in charge of, and what are mutants?" TK asked with folded arms.

"Um…my post is a little…well…trivial. I don't do much…" Hakeru said sadly as he flicked dirt of the bench absentmindedly.

"Well what is it?" Veemon asked.

"I watch a door…"

Everyone seemed taken aback. "A…door?" Tai repeated for clarity.

"Yeah, a door,"

"Is it a special door?" Wormmon asked.

"Heck if I know. Knoshrio, the Izzy of my world, just told me to stand guard of it, and I did. It has something to do with the pathways between the worlds, but I wouldn't know. No one has ever breached it, so no one has told me what it's for,"

"Wow, that's lame…" Davis muttered. Yolei quickly elbowed him in the gut.

"Wow…so they just told you to watch a door…" TK said a tint of pity and understand filling his voice. In a way, that sounded like a kiss off to him. They may as well of told him to watch paint dry, or grass grow!

"Yeah…but it's because of what's happening behind that door that every reality in existence is in danger,"

"How so?" Ken asked.

"You all remember what little I told you right?" Gennai asked stepping into the center of attention.

"Yeah, something about a genocide, but what is that?" Tai asked.

"Genocide is basically a complete mass murder of a certain group. It could be their race, their religion, heck even their hair color," Izzy explained. "But a genocide of what?"

"Hope," Gennai said simply. Everyone's eyes widened and glances were shot in TK's direction.

"So...something wants to kill TK?" Joe asked.

"Not just TK, but every single living TK in the multiverse," everyone gasped at such a wide mass murder.

"He's right," Hakeru said with a gasp as he was clearly still in pain. "And in some worlds...it was already too late for them..."

"What happened to you?" Armadillamon asked.

"I foolishly tried to take the problem on head on and endangered every TK in the process. That's why this is my fault," Hakeru stated grimly. "Honestly, I should still be on bed rest because of my injuries, but I had to do something! My Patamon got hurt…really bad…that's why he isn't here. This beast is causing trouble on too many playing fields to control, and it's power is unpredictable. But it wasn't my power that really set it off though. See, I hate to point fingers and place blame, but this is kinda your fault TK,"

"My fault!" TK exclaimed his pity for the boy suddenly vanishing.

"It's Patamon's fault too,"

"What!" Patamon exclaimed.

"Wait, how is this their fault again?" Hawkmon asked.

"It was when you had came in contact with the other you from three years ago," TK gasped remembering the battle that took place inside of him and outside. TK simply nods prompting Hakeru to continue. "Well, when you guys 'solved' the problem by adding Dark energy to the Chrono Core, you actually doomed as all down the road…"

"But everything went back to normal!" Patamon exclaimed.

"What else could we have done?" TK asked.

"With your limited abilities, that was all you could do. That did solve things, but only for a little while. The core began to grow aggressive with the pure and negative powers in constant conflict with one another. The core was stirring up chaos for my group. Even I had to leave door duty every once in a while. The power it was giving off was creating more mutants than usual,"

"What are mutants?" TK asked remembering that question was never answered.

"Oh right, mutants are anomalies that occur in the mutliverse. It doesn't mean that they're slimly or anything, just freak accidents that got too powerful. Usually their evil so we got get rid of them as soon as possible. One time a Devimon actually managed to destroy the Digidestined but that was expected outcome in that world. But what was unexpected was him starting to get stronger, too strong. So we had to bring him down," Hakeru sighed. "I had tried to harness the Chrono Core myself, or at least suppress its power. It was too much, it over powered me, and what's worst it gained a consciousness,"

"What isn't that the little cricket that follows that puppet around?" Davis questioned.

"First of all that was his conscious, second of all a consciousness is basically a sense of awareness. A mind in other words," Yolei explained.

"It stole my knowledge…and my voice…and began terrorizing the entire mutliverse. I think it's trying to get more power. But I don't know what for, and I don't how. It's using my knowledge, and…" Hakeru suddenly placed his hand to his head as he started moaning in pain. "I-I'm sorry but I have to go…" Hakeru dragged himself off the bench. He walked over to Izzy while reaching in his pocket. He handed Izzy what appeared to be a flash drive and an ear bud of some kind. "They… will have to explain the rest…"

At his words Hakeru began to limp away. With a brief wave he pulls out his Digivice and suddenly vanishes. "Wow…he seemed really hurt…" Mimi said with a bit of concern and worry. After that everyone turned their attention to the flashdrive that Izzy was given.

"I think it goes in your computer," Tai said with a curious look. Izzy only gave him an eye roll as he pulled out his laptop to insert the flash drive in the USB port. He waited as the information was apparently downloading.

"Geez can't it got any faster?" Davis asked. Izzy gave him a crossed look then returned his attention to the loading screen. After about five minutes of waiting suddenly a entire list of data was flowing through the computer at blistering speed. The laptop began glowing as did Izzy's digivice. Soon enough the glowing stopped and three screens popped up each with a boy that was the spitting image of Izzy.

"Whoa!" everyone exclaimed.

"Geez about time, this universe Izzy must have a slow processor from the ancient times," said an Izzy that was the youngest out of all them. The another of the Izzys were the same age as Izzy is now, and the last one looked much older, maybe in his twenties. The youngest Izzy looked like Izzy when he was a kid during their first adventure, but…way different.

"Um…who are you guys?" Izzy asked.

"Duh, isn't it obvious?" asked the teen Izzy.

"We're you, and you're us," said the eldest Izzy.

"But right now we have work to do. Since it would be annoying if we all went by the same name would be quite confusing," the youngest Izzy stated. "My name is Iz, digital monster warrior of the technologically advanced Digidestined.

"Koushiro…but I think you may remember me Izzy," Izzy gave him a look and then struck with realization.

"You mean you're-,"

"Right, I can go by Noir Izzy, or Koushiro,"

"I simply go by Knowledge," said the eldest Izzy.

Now that they had been identify it was clear that the physcial differences were great. Noir Izzy, or Koushiro, looked the most like Izzy being that he's the same age. He's basically wearing a black version of what Izzy is wearing, and his skin tone is slightly darker.

Now Iz, was the most eye catching out of all of them. He was wearing what looked to be a very high tech armor of some kind with purple vein like lights covering his body. The suit has a thick shell, similar to Tentomon's but with a metallic look. The suit's arms hugged him tightly with what appeared to be a talon similar to Tentomon's on the top of his wrist, and his hands were similar to Tentomon's as well. He has on a headband with one red monocle that covers his right eye.

Finally, the last Izzy, who calls himself knowledge. He has blood red hair with a very vacant expression. His face seems to be fixed into a permanent neautral state. He wears a black collared polo shirt. And the most striking feature would be his purple eye color, matching the purple crest he wears around his neck.

"Great Izzy made some new friends, you guys should start a Bridge club," Tai said with a smirk. At this all the Izzys gave Tai an annoyed look, even Knowledge. "Anyway, where's the me in your guys's dimension?"

"He's around somewhere," they all said at once. At this Tai realized how annoyed with himself he is.

"Ignoring him for a moment, I'm guessing you guys got paid a visit by Hakeru, correct?" Koushiro asked. Everyone nods to his question. "Well, then is your TK hooked up yet?"

"Hooked up to what?" TK asked nervously.

"The ear bud you have in your hand there," he said pointing to the object in Izzy's hand. Izzy gave it a brief look over as he turned to TK. He handed it to him at which TK looked it over too. "Stop messing around, we need to do this quick TK!"

"Alright, alright, geez you were much more fun when I was little," TK muttered as he placed the device in his ear. Suddenly the object started glowing a faint golden light as TK's eyes began glowing the same color. Suddenly his head started to ache a bit until three screens appeared before him. Similar to Izzy's situation, he also found himself looking at three different versions of himself. TK found it odd how he saw two versions of himself as a kid, dressed differently of course, and one old version of him that looked…somewhat depressing.

The first child version of him actually looked a little bit older then the other child version of him. He might be nine or ten at best. He wears a black fisher hat like his own, black shirt, with a red opened button up shirt.

The other him was clearly from the some world as Iz as he was also covered in technological equipment. His armor glows with a slight golden hue to it. He wears a cap similar to the one he used to wear on his first adventure to the Digital World. He sported Patamon like wings out of his hat, his digivice was planted into his right shoulder. He also had armor covering his arms, but it seemed his left arm had more stuff on it then his right. While on his right hand you could see the skin of his hand. On the left however, his arm is completely covered with a wrist guard around it.

Lastly, the other TK who he assumed was from Knowledge's world. He seemed a bit more liveler then the him though. With golden eyes, and a fisher hat just like his except his is gray, and a thin black vest over a gold shirt. He also looked pretty muscular showing he may do sports.

"And who are you guys?" TK asked. "And don't say me cause that shtick is getting old,"

"Well, I'm Tak. As I'm sure you noticed like Iz, I'm partly robotic," said one of the younger TK's.

"We're not robots Tak it's just armor," Iz corrected from his screen which earned an eye roll from Tak.

"And let me guess, formerly known as King Takeru, right?" TK said with a smirk to which Takeru simply huffed.

"Well apparently this situation is our fault, so of course I was called in too,"

"But…why are you still so young?"

"Complications, it's only temporary at times. But that's not what we're here for though,"

"Okay, but what about the last you guy?" TK asked looking at him. He didn't know of any other way to put a spin on his name.

"Hope,"

"Alright, Tak, Takeru, and Hope. Just call me TK, and I guess….now what?"

Tak chuckled. "Obviously, we'll have to work together!"

"Doing?"

"See this is how things are gonna work. Hakeru explained to us that only those with the power of hope can close the portals. With that in mind he decided to find us," Takeru explained.

"What portals?"

"Probably the one that the Angemon came out of," Patamon said in thought.

"Right. See we need to close those portals. That way prevent anymore of Chronomon's cronies into our world, and he obtains less power. Even though he's looking for us, he's alright with consaltion prizes. I suggest telling other Digidestined to be warry. He is willing to kill," Hope said with such disinterest.

"Oh, that is bad..." TK muttered.

"But once we close the portals Chronomon will have to way of gaining more power?" Takeru said.

"But what about other worlds?"

"Not our problem. The X Digidestined are supposed to take care of the multiverse. Besides most of the attention will be on us four, and we can handle ourselves,"

"Oh, yeah and don't be a stranger either. Ya need help with some heavy hitters just call one of us, and we'll come help ya out. These things in our ear also allows us to pass through dimension, but only if it's one of us," Tak said with a very upbeat attitude, as expected from a little kid.

"Cool, and you guys know you can count on me too," TK stated proudly.

"I can't believe a genocide is happening for every TK in the multiverse..." Takeru muttered.

"He needed only those extremely skilled and with their power could be of use. Apparently, the four of us are virtually equal in strength, and among the most powerful TK's in the universe," said Hope devoid of any true emotion.

"Cool," TK said.

"And we can talk to the other Izzy's to help point you in the direction of a portal. Chronomon is looking for TK Prime. The four of us are the best candidates so he'll be focusing a lot of his effort on us," Tak reiterated for everyone.

"Alright we get it we're important..." Patamon Noir stated from the side.

"Chrononmon?" TK asked not realizing that the name has been thrown around a lot.

"Yeah, apparently our power gave birth to a brand new Digimon," Takeru explained.

"Oh joy, and what are the rest of us supposed to do?" Joe asked.

"Support," Hope said.

"Obviously, we're the only ones who can close the portals," Takeru stated.

"So I guess that means that any time a portal opens up that's my job. So whatever comes out, I hope you guys can handle," TK said about to turn and walk off.

"That won't be how it works exactly…" Tak said.

"How so?"

"Well, Chronomon is sending Digimon that are Angel type, or fallendown angels or even demons. We gotta be careful, especially since we're the targets!"

"Joy…"

"Oh, I'm sure we'll be fine, with help like this anyway!" Patamon cheered.

"Too bad my place is still ruined from that rampaging Angemon…" TK muttered.

"Damage control is our specialty!" Tak exclaimed proudly. "We'll get your place all nice and tidy for you in a jiffy,"

"Really, uh, thanks!" TK exclaimed.

"No problem," Tak said as he suddenly vanished from the universal chat room. It was only a few moments later though when Tak suddenly appeared on Izzy's laptop next to Iz.

"Hey Iz mind if I borrow some stuff so I can fix TK's house," Iz seemed to sigh with clear annoyance as he handed Tak what looked like a small chip. Everyone was surprised that the boy was so close by.

"Thanks!" he exclaimed as he rushed off.

"Full of energy that one…" Izzy muttered.

"I just feel like our world is doomed…" Iz stated with a shake of his head.

"Well times a wasten. We got a plan and we know what our assignments are so let's get to work!" Tai exclaimed to which everyone cheered along with him, all except for the TKs.

"You're not gonna tell them?" Takeru asked TK. TK looked at his friends then shook his head.

"Naw, that would kill the mood. I don't wanna be a downer,"

"The power this things is giving off, it's incredible. And I feel such a dread running through my bones too,"

"I know...even with all that we've got...I'm not sure if it'll be enough..."


	4. Collateral Damage

_**Digimon Universe part 4**_

"_**Collateral Damage,"**_

TK had decided to head back to his house seeing as the meeting, in his opinion, was over. He'd promised to stay in contact and to keep everyone updated on his status. As TK was walking back to his apartment, he sighed remembering that it was in ruins. He shoved his hands in his pockets as he walked toward his home.

"Oh cheer up TK," Patamon said cheerfully from his perch on TK's head.

"My home is ruined, and my mother is going to kill me if Chronomon doesn't take me out first," TK said with his head to the ground.

"Oh, I think you're just being dramatic, besides that other you said he'd help with that,"

"Yeah, but I don't know…it is still me. When I was that age I was…"

"A bit eccentric, always willing to help, but not doing it in the best of ways. Like that time you tried to _help _Izzy fix his computer, or when you tried to _help_ Tai find his spy glass, or when you _helped _Cody find his kendo stick, or when Joe-,"

"Alright I get it, I suck at helping people," TK said with a laugh. He returns his attention in front of him to see a small yet familiar figure standing in front of his apartment complex. It was odd since he seemed to be attracting the most attention besides the gigantic hole in the apartment. He stood there with his arms crossed tapping his foot. He turned his head to look at TK then instantly his sour face lightened up.

"Oh there you are!" he exclaimed as he rushed over to greet TK. He was just as tall as TK was at that age. TK found it odd that he wasn't wearing the armor from before. However, his fashion sense was definitely not of this world. He has on a dark green hat with a glowing cerulean gem on the forehead of the hat, a black shirt with a blue glowing circle in the middle of his chest along with a spot in the center of the glowing spot, dark green pants, and green converse. However, the most notable and eye catching feature would be his left arm. It was covered with a black sleeve that covered his entire arm, with the only skin showing would be his finger tips. The entire sleeve seemed to be covered with a tech metal and some wires. "I was beginning to get worried, this world is so…different…"

"Different how?" I asked him.

"Well for starters, there are no towering sky scrapers, hover vehicles, everyone is human, and-,"

"Get it, more future stuff," TK said raising his hands.

"So you're from the future?" Patamon said tilting his head at Tak. Tak smiled up at Patamon.

"Wow, can I hold him?" Tak asked reaching out his arms. TK looked surprised but obliged as he picked Patamon up off his head then handed him to Tak. Neither saw a problem with this since this kid was just curious. He held Patamon in his arms mystified. "Wow, you're so soft and cuter in person!"

"Huh?" Patamon asked tilting his head. Tak then placed Patamon on his head.

"Oh, and to answer your question, technically that's kinda yes and no. See, my world is a possible future for this one, in my world its 2099,"

"2099, wow that's really far out there," Patamon said ignoring the fact that Tak was tugging on his wings.

"This all seems pretty new to you," TK ventured to say looking at Tak's wonderment at the experience. Tak slightly blushed in embarrassment as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Sorry, it's just different how you're able to interact with your Patamon," He explained. TK tilts his head prompting an explanation. "Here see," Tak reached into his pocket to pull out what looked like a futuristic version of the Original Digivice he held it up for a hologram screen that showed a Patamon. "This is my Patamon,"

"Hello, it's nice to meet you guys, or well remeet you I suppose, or is it-," Holo-Patamon stated.

"Don't try to understand it'll just get more confusing," TK said waving off the statement. "So, Tak, your Patamon is a…"

"Digital Avatar," Tak stated. "See in my world, Digimon are more data then living creatures. They still have personalities, but no real bodies. So, they rely on the humans they bond with to harness their powers. Naturally, some not so friendly people do wind up with a Digimon that are able to create bonds with. But only people with our special armor interface can hope to harness the full power of the Digimon,"

"Wow, that's so cool!" Patamon exclaimed.

"Yeah, in a way the Digital Avatar is mostly an extension of the human, so in a way we Digimon are like a part of them," Holo-Patamon added.

"What about journeys to the Digital World, what are they like?" TK asked. He wondered what a futuristic Digital World would look like.

"Huh?" Tak asked tilting his head. "What's that?"

"You don't know what the Digital World is?" asked a voice from behind the two. They both looked back to see Cody and Yolei approaching with their partners with them. Yolei was the one who asked the question judging from her shocked face. "How can you be a Digidestined and not have gone to the Digital World?"

"What is that?" Tak asked again.

"It's the place where Digimon are born and where they live," Hawkmon explained.

"But…Digimon are just data, what could this world be like?" Tak asked glancing at Holo-Patamon.

"There are not just data, they have feelings and emotions!" Yolei said quickly getting amped up about the conversation.

"Easy Yolei, his world is different from ours," TK said placing a hand on her shoulder.

"So that means you've never got to meet your partner in person?" Cody asked. Tak nods at his question which practically horrifies him. "I can't imagine not being with Armadillamon…"

"Well, I can still talk to Patamon, that doesn't make him any less real to me than any of you. I care about him too, he's my partner and my friend all the same weather I can touch him or not!" Tak said quickly getting quite emotional. It was obvious to everyone there they had hit a very sensitive nerve. Tak realizing his tone and emotional flare quickly allowed his gaze to leave them for a moment before looking up at the hole in the wall again. Without a word he walked away from them.

"That was…odd…" Armadillamon said.

"Well in his defense we were basically stating he didn't care about his Patamon," Cody said regretfully.

"What's he doing here again?" Yolei asked.

"Oh yeah, he's supposed to close up that hole in my apartment for me," TK said with a realization.

"TK!" Tak exclaimed. TK turned to the boy to see he had a blue scanner of some kind over his left eye. "Did you ever close that portal that opened earlier?"

"…no…why…" TK was scared to ask.

"Iz just told me he picked up on a huge amount of energy is building up inside your apartment!"

Then suddenly in a burst of light shined from inside the apartment as what appeared to be two wingless Angemon riding on…Pegasusmon! Also instead of staffs, the angels have spears with a fine steel on the end of them.

"Okay…that's new…" TK muttered in awe at seeing the angels perched on the horses. The two heavenly warriors came riding down toward TK and Tak.

"DigiArmor Activate!" Tak exclaimed slamming his Digivice onto his chest. Suddenly, the armor from before came alive covering his whole body. The armor has orange lines where the blue lines were as the armor covered every inch of his body and hugged him closely. Patamon like wings had shot out his hat as he grabbed TK and flapped out of the way with TK's Patamon in tow.

"Guys watch out!" Yolei exclaimed.

"DIGI ARMOR ENERGIZE!" Yolei and Cody exclaimed.

"**Hawkmon, Armor Digivolve too….Halsemon, the Wings of Love,"**

"**Armadillamon, Armor Digivolve to...Digmon, the Drill of Knowledge,"**

The two armored Digimon leaped into action knocking away the TKs's opposition. Once in the clear the two share a nod before leaping into action.

"Patamon it's time to digivolve!" TK exclaimed.

"**Patamon, Digivolve to…Angemon!" **The champion level angel appeared in all his glory as he rushed off into the air to lock staff with one of the other Angemon. Angemon swung his staff to knock back the enemy Angemon. The Pegasusmon however was not just for show as it unleashed a _Star Shower _attack upon Angemon.

"_Angel Staff!_" Angemon exclaimed spinning his staff rapidly to deflect each star.

"_Gold Rush!" _Digmon exclaimed unleashed a barrage of drills.

"_Tempest Wing!_" Halsemon followed up with a intense laser beam from his eyes. Both attacks struck the Pegasusmon who were holding up the Angemon. Cody noticed that the Angemon, and Pegasusmon weren't going to give up without a fight. Cody soon noticed that Tak had yet to act.

"Tak what're you doing?" Cody asked in shock at seeing a lack of in participation in the fight.

"I…I'm just…" Tak grabbed his left arm fearfully and nervous.

"Tak, it'll be alright, we can do this trust yourself," Holo-Patamon encouraged. Cody looked at Tak curiously and at his arm. He noticed his left arm has a much thicker armor on it and that it looked like it had been damaged.

"Let's Digivolve," Tak said slapping his chest. Suddenly, his futuristic Digivice began glowing as a white light traveled from his chest and then throughout his body thus changing the line coloration from orange, to white. Tak's hat fell down on his face covering his eyes, angel wings burst from his backpack attached to his armor, he held out his right hand for a golden staff to materialize in it. "Angemon Mode!"

"Whoa…" the three Digidestined gaped at the display.

"Sorry to keep you waiting," Tak said rushing over to the battle and instantly commanding attention. With speed and precision he swung his staff straight down onto one of the Pegasusmon's throat. The Digital horse bucked back throwing off it's rider. Since the Angemon had no wings he fell straight to the ground. "We could use a Digi-Analyzer to see what we're up against here!"

"Consider it done," came Holo-Angemon's voice. "There called ArmoredHopemon. This Digimon is from a strange universe somewhere in the multiverse…says here that their combined might was forged through the process known as DNA Digivolving. Which explains the flightless Angemon and the multi winged Pegasusmon with the white armor. They have all their previous powers, but also something more,"

"Which is?"

"Watch out!" Angemon exclaimed to Tak. Tak looked to see the other HolyHopemon was glowing as they went flying towards him.

"_Rushing Sky Blast!_" he exclaimed charging toward Tak. Tak was too close for him to dodge the fast attack so he crossed his arms hoping that he could tough it out. The attack bashed into him, but he was able to move in a way that he wasn't traveling along with it. He went spinning through the air then lands harshly into the ground with a shout of pain.

"TK, I think Digivolving again would be best at this point," Angemon said.

"Well let's hop to it then!" TK said holding up his Digivice.

"**Angemon…Digivolve to…MagnaAngemon!" **Once the light died down the mighty angel MagnaAngemon appeared in all his glory. He stared down at the two HolyHopemon who stared back at him. "Time to end this!"

"We got your back buddy, _Rock Cracken!" _Digmon exclaimed creating controlled earthquake toward the two holy Digimon. As expected they took to the air.

"Now Halsemon!"

"_Tempest Twist!_" he exclaimed spinning in wheel and shooting out a powerful tornado this threw both Digimon off as they tried to regain equilibrium.

"My turn," MagnaAngemon said simply as he rose on the winds that Halsemon had created. Moving along with the wind he drew out his sword. "_Excalibur_," With one swoosh of his blade he slashed one of them to pieces making it become nothing but data. However, the same trick possible would not work twice on the other one.

"_Holy Knuckle!" _Tak's voice suddenly came from above as his glowing fist slammed into the head of the horse like Digimon. "_Hand of Fate!_" he added blasting the Angemon with his other hand.

"Alright, now let's attack together!" MagnaAngemon exclaimed. "_Soul Vanisher!"_

"_Hand of Fate!" _The two attacks struck home turning the Digimon into dust. "Yes, we did it!"

"Now, let's make sure we close that portal this time," MagnaAngemon said.

"Oh yeah, almost forgot about that a second time, you give me a lift?" TK questioned MagnaAngemon. The angel obliged by picking up his partner and bringing him to the whole in the wall. TK rushed through and into his ruined bathroom to see the glowing gateway in front of him. "Any ideas on how to close this?"

"Try using your Digivice," his partner suggested. TK held up his Digivice to the portal which let out a powerful golden glow matching the portal. The portal responded to TK's mental command and shrunk out of existence.

"Cool, closing portals to other dimensions, all in a day's work for the Digidestined of Hope," TK smirked turning to his partner. He couldn't know for sure with his partners mostly covered face, but he sensed he was rolling his eyes. TK returned to the hole to tell everyone the good news. "Alright, no more Angemon are coming out my bathroom today. Although, I have four other rooms in here, so let's not count our chickens before they hatch"

Tak smirked at TK's sense of humor while Yolie and Cody only shook their heads. "Good, don't need that again…well anytime soon at least," Cody said.

"Well glad that's over and done with now," Yolei said with a sigh. MagnaAngemon brought TK back down to the ground and then he changed back into Patamon. "But it's good that TK is the one who definitely has to deal with this stuff more so then anyone else,"

"Thanks for the support guys," TK said. Suddenly a ringing sounded in his pocket. TK reached into it to pull out his communicator. He put it in his ear while pressing the answer button on the side. "Hello?"

"TK, what's going on? Suddenly, my laptop is picking up on a portal and it sounded like a fight was happening?" came Izzy's voice on the otherside.

"Nothing to worry about, everything was handled. Tak was with me too," Yolei gave him a stern look. "And Cody and Yolei helped a bit,"

"That was amazing what you just did Tak," Cody said turning toward the boy, but noticed something was wrong with him with the way he was holding his left arm. "Tak, what's wrong?"

"Oh, don't worry Cody I'm fine," Tak said trying to give a reassuring smile. However, Cody knew TK well enough to know that the smile Tak was giving him was only a front. Since Cody didn't know Tak, per say, he decided not to call him on it despite his obvious discomfort once the smile left. "I should probably fix this place up real quick," Tak said pulling out a chip in his pocket. Without using his left hand he placed it inside the side of his Digivice. Tak held his Digivice up and suddenly it started to glow brightly. A bright flash of light later and all the damage that was done was fixed, and even the hole in TK's apartment was repaired.

"Wow, how did you do that?" they all asked.

"Well…Iz explains this better. He said it's some weird power our Digivices have. With being able to turn data into real things. Something like that, but that's what I used to fix everything. I'd try to not touch the repairs for a while until it fully sets in,"

"Thanks Tak," TK said holding out his hand. Tak smiled as he happily shook TK's hand.

"Oh, and my Izzy told me to give this to you to give to your Izzy. Iz noted that your Izzy is using some pretty outdated tech, so he figured this should help him keep up a bit," Tak said handing TK what looked to be a flash drive…possibly. TK had to admit it would be helpful. Izzy's computer didn't pick up on the disturbance until after everything was all over.

"Thanks again Tak, hopefully next time I can go see that future of yours,"

"Maybe, so long for now TK. Bye Cody, Armadillomon, Yolei, Hawkmon, and Patamon!" Tak called out each person as he left opening a portal back to his world and vanishing.

"Wow, TK you were so adorable when you were little," Yolei cooed.

"Shut up," TK muttered in a jocular tone.

"So TK what are you gonna do now?" Cody asked him. Cody knew that TK was smart and tactful when he wanted to be. He suspected that he'd report this happening to the other TK's and devise a different plan of attack against the enemy. When TK is in a fight he tends to be a different person. However, his assumptions are put to a screeching halt when TK's response is a loud yawn.

"Well, sleeping this off like a bad hang over comes to mind," He muttered. Guess this is one of those times when he didn't want to be tactful.

"TK what's a hang over?" Patamon asked.

"I'll tell ya later, you guys going up too?" TK asked pressing the elevator button.

"Yeah," Yolei said hopping with a silent Cody trailing behind her. They waited only for a few moments in silence before the doors opened onto TK's floor. TK walks out waving goodbye and saying thanks for the help. However, as Cody watches TK go, he has this foreboding feeling that he'll be seeing less and less of his blonde friend around.


	5. Trouble Around Every Corner

_**Digimon Universe part 5**_

"_**Trouble around Every Corner,"**_

Tak sighs as he steps out the portal of flashing lights into a room. He was still holding onto his left arm trying not to move it at all costs. His eyes glanced around the room for a moment before stepping away from the swirling light show. It slowly shrinks down until it disappears totally.

"Tak are you alright?" came his Patamon's question. An image of the Digimon appeared on Tak's head originating from his right wrist. He gave a weak smile.

"I'm fine…just…might need to get some things fixed is all…" he muttered.

"Tak!" came an apprehending voice. Tak winced at the volume as he turned his head to look at Mat, or Matty as he's called in this world. His brother was dressed in his casual wear of black button up shirt, short sleeved, blue jeans with brown shoes. He says it a very retro look compared to everything else in 2099.

"Hey bro…" Tak waved lightly with his right hand. His brother's gaze was stern and unflinching. He stared at his younger brother, and then his eyes fell on his left arm. Tak held his left arm close.

"Where were you and what happened to your arm?" he asked patiently with his voice on edge.

"…Didn't Iz tell you, I went uh…training!"

"Training?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, we had quite a workout," Patamon said jumping in as he appeared in hologram form with a smirk as well.

"Uh huh…" Matty said glancing at Gabumon who was hologramed next to him.

"You buy that?" Gabumon asked with a raised eyebrow.

"What?" both partner and Digimon asked.

"What happened to your arm?" Gabumon asked.

"I guys we overdid it a bit," Tak stated with a shrug which inadvertently caused a sharp pain to shoot through his left arm. The pain was so intense he obviously winced with great discomfort as he tried to regain himself.

"Okay, that's enough, whatever you did we gotta get your arm fixed up," Matty said releasing Tak from his stern gaze as he guided him through a door on their left that slid open to the right. Once entering they came into a lab, Iz's lab to be exact. This was the Digidestined main place of business and meetings. Compared to tech in TK's time period this would be light years ahead of them. The room has a purple color scheme going for it, a large home computer with a monitor the size of a 16' inches and a wide keyboard, a table that looked like a scanner with numerous mechanical appendages. No windows, smooth electronic like floor with purple wires covering the inside of the black floor. Currently, all of the other Digidestined were all gathered there and immediately turned to the new arrivals.

"Well there's the birthday boy!" Tai stated with obvious distaste. Tak could only give a weak smile in response.

"Where did you go, we were really worried?" Myme asked with clear concern and distaste as well. Tak's eyes fell on Iz who only glanced at me and pretended that Tak never looked at him. At this Tak gave him a look with his eyes half open.

"What's wrong with your arm Tak?" Kari had asked walking over to him. She reached out to touch it but he immediately twisted away.

"It's nothing, just feeling the mode is all," Tak quickly said.

"Something's wrong with your arm obviously with the way you're holding it," Joey, the Joe of this world, said walking over to bend down at Tak's level. He gently grasped Tak's arm, but despite his gentleness Tak looked like he wanted to scream out in complete agony. "Holy shock, this is some serious damage Tak what did you get yourself into?"

"I-,"

"Allow me to explain," Iz said cutting in. He walked over to Tak and surprisingly gentle for him looked at Tak's arm. He only caused slight discomfort as opposed to Joey's careful hand. Iz guided Tak over to the table. "Lie down," he said simply. Tak obeyed hearing the authoritative tone he took. He was not pleased with his actions either. "I'll perform your scheduled maintenance that you were supposed to do earlier,"

Tak sighed as he relaxed and allowed Iz to position his left arm properly, "I'm not defenseless, besides I had help,"

Iz didn't seem to care. "Still it was rash and something you shouldn't have done. I told you to wait for everyone else to arrive, so we could brief them on what happened,"

"But-,"

"No buts," Iz said sternly as he turned to walk over to his computer. After a few keystrokes the table began to activate as straps appeared to hold Tak down and prevent movement. After a fast injection into Tak's pain filled arm he let out a shot of pain which made everyone wince. But the pain began to dull and as it did his shouts of pain were less frequent.

"Alright Iz, explain," Tai demanded.

Iz sighed, "It would seem the Dark Masters are the least of our problems right now,"

"What do you mean?" Lora asked, this world's Sora.

"Apparently, there are other universes out there, others that are just like ours. Each of these worlds has their own set of Digidestined and Digimon partners. Each one interacts differently and fight differently too. I've been trying to do some research on them thanks to this upgrade that other Tak gave me,"

"Other Tak?" Matty questioned.

"Yes, it would seem the trouble starts at the source with a being known as Hakeru, or Takeru X. He didn't give a lot of information, only that Tak is the key to fighting this new and powerful threat,"

"Explain Iz,"

"Well…for lack of a better term things are gonna get crazy. Apparently an entity known as Chrononmon is using the powers of hope to his own advantage creating hybreds of Angel type Digimon from Patamon's evolution chain from different Patamon's across the multiverse. It's quite an ingenious idea. He opens portals in other worlds, and sends them out to…" Iz tapered off on the last part.

"To what Iz?" Kari asked.

"…Their mission is to kill every Takeru in the universe," This news made everyone gasps in total fear and shock. They all had no doubt that Patamon's evolution chain was extremely powerful, but to have such power bearing down on them and Tak of all people. They were already clearly worried for the boy, but now even more so.

"They want to kill Tak, why?" Kari asked not understanding. She turned toward Tak who was simply too drugged up to give any input into the conversation. Iz still focused on his work as he explained but he was getting distracted.

"Well I think Iz may've forgotten to mention a few things," Tentomon's image appeared over Iz's shoulder. "I mean sure it sounds bad but this is Tak and Patamon we're talking about they're tough as a thick cut of unstable molecules. Besides they got back up too!"

"What do you mean, who?" Joey asked.

"Us," he stated firmly and proudly.

"Yeah, he's right, not like Tak has to go it alone, he does have us," Agumon agreed whole heatedly to the statement appearing at Tai's side.

"No, not us-us, other us'," Tentomon tried to explain exasperated. However no one got it.

"Allow me," Patamon said floating over away from the table Takeru was lying on. "Basically, this Chrononmon was to absorb TK prime, the source of all Takeru's. But, finding the source is kinda hard with so many worlds out there. But somehow the guy was able to dwindle it down to four Takeru's. One of them is Tak, so he's gonna be the main point of interest for this thing,"

"What?" Matty exclaimed.

"But we have help. Thanks to Hakeru, Tak can communicate with those other Takeru's who have shown themselves to be quite powerful. He can call on them at anytime and with the device he wears he can travel to their dimension to help them, and vice versa for the other Takeru's. It's all very confusing but you know it works,"

"Iz's computer picks up on when portals are opened, so that would mean it's Tak and Patamon's job to close them since they're the only ones who can," Tentomon added.

"Iz was also able to program Tak's scanner with the same readings, less powerful, but helpful all the same,"

"All I'm hearing is that Tak is on the frontlines again," Matty said.

"Matty, it sounds like we don't have much choice," Gabumon argued.

"But he's hurt, he hasn't fully recovered from that fight. He hasn't even reached Ultimate transformation yet. I say those other Takeru's will have to pick up the slack,"

"That's unfair Matty and you know it," Tai said.

"Well I bet you would say the same thing as me if it was Kari in this situation!" Tai winced at his volume and truthful words.

"But he is right, we can't let the other Takeru's have to look after their world and ours. Like it or not, Tak is possibly TK prime, so Chronomon will be gunning for him," Gatomon stated calmly next to Kari.

"Well then I'll take his place then,"

"That's not how it works," Patamon said shaking his head. "You may be able to do all the fighting for him, but then he'll never get stronger. And he's the only one who can close the portal to prevent more from leaking into our world,"

Matty grinds his teeth at this news. "Then what do we do?"

"How about letting him fight?" Gommamon suggested. Joey quickly pressed a button on his wrist that retracted the Digimon away before Matty could turn on him. Patamon landed back at Tak's side with his wings/ears drooped down. He tried to get them to understand, and he saw that despite the drugs dulling the pain. Tak understood what was going on, and Patamon could tell he was feeling a tempest of emotions.

"Alright, that should do it," Iz stated backing away from the computer as he turned toward Tak. He pressed a button and he was set free. The drug wore off almost immediately after that. It was special nullifier that immediately burned out once the patient could move and remain conscious. Tak slid off the table then began to move his left arm experimentally and pain free.

"Now, back to our earlier discussion, where did you go?" Matty asked.

"I went to go help TK," Tak stated proudly. "And we ended up getting into a fight, I didn't know it would happen it just did, and I wanted to stay back. I just knew they'd lose without me so I helped,"

"You pushed yourself just a little too hard is all," Lora said calmly in a sweet voice as she touched his shoulder. "You got us on your side and we know what's going on now. So, we'll be around to help you out alright, but you gotta tell us stuff,"

"Yeah, especially when crossing dimensions," Biyomon added.

"Okay…" Tak said as his fists tightened. He knew what that meant. They'll do their best to cut him out of it so he'd have to do the least amount of work. Basically, the only thing that he could do which is close the portals.

Suddenly an alarm began to blare through the entire lab. "Huh, what's happening?" Myme asked with pout as she stood up from the seat she took, fixing her skirt.

"Apparently the Dark Masters don't care what we've got going on. Machindramon is trying to turn innocent people into Digimon mechanized slaves, and Puppetmon is terrorizing people too,"

"Two of them on the same day!" Tai exclaimed throwing his hands up. And then another alarm sounded on top of the other and then a map appeared with a blinking dot flashing rapidly on the map. "Whoa, what's that?"

"The dimensional breach siren, I can't believe it, now of all times!" Iz exclaimed zeroing in on the anomaly.

"Well what do we do?" Joey asked. "We need at least one Mega and a few Ultimates to tangle with one Dark Master and keep people safe,"

Matty growled at the conundrum, while Tak only secretly smirked. He was the only one on the team who hadn't acquired the Ultimate transformation. It would be suicide to try and take on a Dark Master for him.

"Leave the portal to me, I got my arm fixed, and if I hurry I can close it before anything pops out," Tak said quickly.

"Tak, I don't think it's such a good idea for you to go so soon after just getting fixed up," Tai argued.

"You might want to stay and rest, that portal isn't going anywhere," Lora advised.

"I can't just sit here either, I won't go it alone, I'll have the bestest backup ever,"

"Who?" they all questioned.

"Who else, myself," Tak said with a smile. He touched his right ear for the earpiece to appear and he twisted the dial. "Um, hi other me's is anyone there?"

A few moments went by with no answer from any of the other Takerus. However, after a moment someone answered in a groggy voice. "Hello…" he was clearly annoyed and must've been sleeping.

"Um hi…are you Noir TK?"

"I'm guessing you're Tak, you know it's like 3 in the morning in my world…"

"I'm sorry, but I need help with a portal,"

"Right now?" he questioned. "Can't you handle it yourself,"

"Well I would but…it's kinda hard to say…you're the only one who answered,"

"Because a universal rule is TK is that no TK is good unless they get their eight hours. You can handle it yourself, just go ultimate and you should be fine. These things aren't that tough to the point you need help,"

"But…I can't yet…"

"What do you mean you can't?"

"I…don't have an Ultimate…" Tak stated that with a bit of shame despite all of the other Digidestined looking at him. He didn't like admitting that he felt embarrassed or out of place because of this.

"Ugh….I get it, you must not have fought Piedmon yet right?"

"Huh, how do you know that?"

"Alright, I'll meet you at the portal, hurry up,"

"Uh right thank you," At that Tak hung up and turned toward the others. "See, one of the other me's is going to help. He told me to meet him there so I should get going," Tak placed his digivice on his shoulder and suddenly his armor appeared once again. "I'll catch up with you guys later,"

"Just meet us back here!" Matty called up to him as Tak switched to Angemon mode and flew off through the opening in the ceiling. Tak may or may not of heard him but if he did he didn't express it. Tak flew through the air high over the futuristic city below. The buildings in this time period were large, huge, and flashing. The buildings were all made from futuristic compound that was as easy to manipulate as concrete but twice as sturdy as steel. The ground was hard to see from how high he flew, and the flying cars didn't help either. Tak made sure to keep out of the fast lane knowing full well how dangerous that is from firsthand experience. Underneath Tak's mask he was scanning the area for the portal. He came to a stop to land on a floating holographic billboard.

"Where is it?" Tak whined looking around the bustling city of NeOdaiba.

"Calm down Tak and focus, you won't be able to find it like this," Angemon advised.

"I know…just…wish I could ya know…"

"I know, but that comes with time and practice,"

"We're already the best at Champion mode, I mean, we've taken on Myotismon himself! Yet we're still treated like….like…"

"A pathetic weakling," came a voice from above him. Tak turned his head sharply to see what appeared to be, in his opinion a super Angemon, and with another slightly older version of him on his shoulder. The multiwinged Angemon landed on the billboard next to Tak who jumped to the side in surprise. This MagnaAngmon was different from TK's. He had two blades instead of one, they were a blood red color. White wings, but a completely black suit, and a red helmet covering his face.

"Whoa!" both Tak and Angemon stated in surprise.

"Hi there," the angemon spoke.

"Wow…" Tak gasped as he began to float all around the new Angemon. "You look so awesome, like a super Angemon, different then TK's super Angemon, or a super hero. Like whoa you look so awesome!"

"Um, thanks," the Digimon responded.

"Alright, enough gawking over NoirAngemon, we got a job you wanted us to do right?" Takeru said quickly cutting in. Tak looked at the other version of him. Seeing his attire of light green pajama top, pajama pants, and with his black sneakers revealed he must've been quite comfy in his bed. Takeru looked Tak over to with slight bit of interest with the armor.

"Um, sorry for waking you up…" Tak apologized under Takeru's firm gaze as he twiddled his thumbs. Takeru sighed as he looked around. "So this is my world…"

"Cool…" Takeru said which made HolyAngemon smirk slightly.

"Shall we get back to business," Holo-Angemon said floating next to Tak.

"I agree,"NoirAngemon stated agreeing with his other self.

"Okay, so where is the portal?" Takeru muttered with his eyes gazing over the area.

"My scans have way too much interference from all this stuff around…I can't figure out where it is…" Tak whined. Takeru and NoirHolyAngemon looked at him and then at each other. Then both point in the same direction. Tak follows to see a rainbow swirling light on the side of a building.

"Is that normal?" Takerua asked.

"Uh, no it's not," Tak flew towards it with HolyAngemon following. "We'd better close this before something-," Suddenly a huge beast burst out the portal and went falling towards the ground. "Comes out…"

Both of the hope warriors flew below to confront the creature and were thoroughly surprised to see a Digimon….not looked nothing of Patamon's evolution line. "What the heck is that?" Takeru asked.

"Retrieving data…data retrieved, it's a digimon called Stegomon, apparently it's created when a Patamon uses an item called the Digi-Egg of Friendship," Holo-Angemon explained.

"Digi-Egg of…friendship?" Tak was very confused but Takeru gasped in surprise.

"Wow, I had no idea something like that was possible," Takeru said in surprise watching as the creature stood up. It looked like a stegosaurus with giant spikes all along the back, and tail. Its green body and thick shell reinforced the idea that this Digimon was one tough customer. "But it's an armor level, quick work for the two of us so this should be easy,"

"_Shell Needle Rain!"_ Stegomon yelled as a barrage of spikes went flying from it's back. As the attack was sent scattering around the entire area. Tak summoned his staff and began to spin it around rapidly in a circle to deflect the large needles as best he could. HolyAngemon flew between each spike with ease and grace. He was as if a feather in the wind, untouchable, and Takeru was perched on his shoulder.

"_Excalibur Rush!_" HolyAngemon exclaimed swinging both his blades as he passed by the armored Digimon. The Digimon was still for a moment as HolyAngemon stood straight up after the attack. "He should be done," The angel said turning around.

"_Guillotine Wheel!"_ the Digimon exclaimed rushing at HolyAngemon. The angel was quick as he threw Takeru off and into the air as he was viciously tackled straight into a wall. Tak swooped in to grab Takeru's hand and fly high into the air as the wheel Digimon went soaring at them. The first time it missed but bounced off a wall to head towards them again from above. Tak wasn't quick enough, but HolyAngemon was there in a moment's notice to deflect the armored Digimon.

"Whoa…he's so strong…" Tak gasped seeing as the Ultimate was slammed into a building and bounced back like it was nothing.

"I don't get it, you slashed him, nothing can defend against your blades," Takeru stated in confusion.

"His armor is thick, much thicker than we anticipated. It's gonna take a lot more to penetrate it,"

"_Shell Needle Rain!"_

"Tak, get Takeru to safety I'll cover you," HolyAngemon stated deflected each spike that went their way.

"Right…" Tak stated glumly flying higher into the air. "Man…I wish I had Ultimate transformation,"

"Don't worry kid, I was the last one to have my Digimon reach Ultimate level too. And what's worst is it didn't even last long…"

"How, you and your Digimon, you guys are so strong, just like TK and his Patamon. I don't know how I can be Prime anything. I barely made it to Champion…and when I did…I got careless…"

"Ah, the scaring battle between Devimon, every TK must experience it differently. It's like a rule in the universe it seems that each TK must take scars from that fight,"

"Mine are more physical," Tak stated sadly glancing at his left arm.

"…Ah, I get it, you and Angemon were almost killed by Devimon. You survived it, so that's proof of your strength,"

"But I haven't been able to push myself farther, beyond this mode. I've been trying but nothing works. No amount of training is helping…I feel broken…" Tak looked down at HolyAngemon seeing the angel fend off the armored Pentomon easily, but being unable to penetrate his armor.

"I know what you're going through kid, trust me I do," Takeru said grabbing his attention. "But one thing I need you to remember, you're not weak, you're the strongest. That means the most responsibility falls on you, but because you're just a kid they won't let you know that. They won't let you feel the pressure of it all, and I can tell you right now they will constantly worry about you because you and Kari are their strength. Just…don't go seeking power…otherwise you may not like what it does to you afterwards," Tak sensed that Takeru knew what he was talking about. He wanted to believe but he just didn't fully understand what he meant. Takeru could see this despite his face being mostly covered. "Okay then let me show you your strength, hey HolyAngemon!" the angel glanced his direction. "Tag out!"

"Wait, what?" In a flash HolyAngemon was in front of him after throwing Stegomon to the side. The Ultimate took his partner then floats to the side to allow Tak through. Tak glances at him in fear and then at Stegomon.

"We're here if ya need us, now go,"

His voice tone expressed he was not to be disobeyed, so Tak dived downward to confront the beast. "You sure about this?" Holo-Angemon asked.

"Nope," Tak responded pulling his staff back to strike Stegomon. However, he underestimated it's weight merely from how easily he saw HolyAngemon throwing it around. It barely moved and in response slammed into Tak's chest. This sent the boy flying back and into the side of a building.

"_Shell Needle Rain!"_ Stegomon exclaimed as a barrage of blades shot out his shell. Tak took to the air quickly avoiding further damage.

"Come on Tak, focus, you can do this," Takeru muttered to himself.

"_Angel Rod!" _Tak exclaimed spinning his staff then throwing it. The staff hit Stegomon straight in the head throwing it off balanced. "Okay, here I go, _Heavenly Typhoon!" _Tak dived down to retrieve his staff then began to spin in it a superfast motion until the sheer speed of it created a powerful wind. The wind created swept Stegomon off it's feet. Tak struck hard launching the Digimon into the air with it's underbelly exposed. Using his speed Tak was able get above the armored Digimon and aimed for the softer underbelly.

"Yeah, now take him out!" Takeru cheered.

"_Holy Knuckle!" _Tak exclaimed slamming his fist into the weak portion of the armor. His fist cracked the shell a bit as the beast went flying down toward the ground. Tak points his opposite hand, his left hand, toward the beast. "_Hand of Fate!" _A golden blast shot forth and penetrated the shell of Stegomon and as soon as he hit the ground he broke into bits of data. "Wow…I did it!"

"Yes you did, now allow me to do the honors," Takeru said as HolyAngemon floats closer to the swirling portal. He raises his Digivice and the portal shrinks into nonexistence. "There done and done, now we're going back to bed," he groaned tapping a button on his headset that opened another swirling vortex of light, but this time the color is black a representation of his world.

"Takeru," Tak said flying behind them with a small wave. Once Takeru's eyes fell on him Tak became shy as he turned away. "Uh, thank you…for the help,"

"No problem, you'll find that all of us have differences in some negative ways, but you'll see we've got some positive attributes too,"

"Uh huh…" Tak said tilting his head, and Takeru knew that what he just said went over the child's head.

"Just keep up the good work and call if you need help, but make sure you really need it next time okay?"

"Alright, bye, bye HolyAngemon!" Tak said waving as they both entered their portal and it closed behind them. Tak sighs in relief as he turns then flies off to catch up with the others to help with the Dark Masters.


	6. The Price of Hope

_**Digimon Universe part 6**_

"_**The Price of Hope,"**_

"Is he still asleep?" asked a voice. The person sounded young, in his preteen years or so.

"Yep, they both are," came another voice even more childlike in nature with it's high pitch.

"They really shouldn't be just sleeping the day away…" sighed the former who spoke.

"Oh don't sweat it Iori, besides they have a lot to deal with ya know,"

"I know Upamon, but he can't be that tired. I didn't see him go anywhere the entire time,"

"Well..." Upamon began, but he went unheard since Iori already moved to awaken the large lump next to his bed on a mattress.

"Time to wake up guys, it's already past noon," Iori said shaking the lump roughly. He heard a pair of groans in response. "Come on wake up!" Irori said sternly shaking the lump.

"…go away…" a voice moaned out.

"You two have to get up, don't make me break out my kendo stick," Iori warned. Begrudgingly, a head full of blonde locks stuck out from under the sheets. Then a pair of stern ruby eyes stared back at him. "The red eyed look doesn't work on me anymore,"

"What do you want…?" the blonde asked sitting up scratching his head as he looked half dead.

"We have to go to the Digital World,"

"No we don't," the blonde responded fixing his dark blonde hair.

"Okay we don't, but you need to get up,"

"Why?" the blonde stated with a bored expression

"Why else, being alert and on guard. Maybe today will finally be the day you even talk to her,"

"No,"

"But Takeru-,"

"I said no," Takeru stated firmly with a stern gazed fixed on Iori. Iori only sighed as he sat on his feet looking at the slightly older blonde. "This whole age thing is confusing enough, I don't need that right now, especially with what's going on,"

"Well at least get up and eat something, starving yourself won't help,"

"Were just really exhausted," Patamon groaned pulling himself out of the covers next to Takeru. This Patamon has crimson eyes and a darker shade of orange.

"Why?"

"We didn't tell you but, we we're running around all day yesterday closing portals. This Chronomon is wearing us out. Just last night we had to help Tak with this weird hybrid of armor digivolution,"

"I just wonder what else this guy could throw at us," Takeru muttered.

"Well why not go visit Koushiro and do research on Patamon's evolution chain…ya know like he asked you to do already," Iori said with folded arms.

Takeru climbed to his feet then stretched his aches while cracking a few joints into place. "I'd be lucky to get a moment to myself Iori…besides it still doesn't feel right…" Iori looked at Takeru sadly.

"Come on TK, if I could forgive you, I'm sure the others have,"

Takeru ignored the fact he was called by his old nickname, "I haven't really forgiven myself…" Takeru said sadly which only made Patamon fly up to perch on Takeru's head.

"We should eat something, at least to keep up our strength," Patamon advised changing the subject. Takeru sighed as he nods in agreement and walks out the room and toward the kitchen.

"Well he's up now," Upamon said, but that only made Iori sigh.

"I thought he was getting better, why is he all of sudden back in guilt mode?" Iori asked as he carried Upamon in his arms.

"Meeting those other versions of him might've done it, and the fact that he really doesn't have a choice but to work with everyone,"

"I guess that might be it,"

Iori walked out his room to see Takeru accepting the offer of flapjacks from his mother. He was glad that his family had somewhat accepted Takeru. The truth was a little murky since he couldn't really tell them what Takeru had really done to them personally. However, it was somewhat a blessing in disguise that Takeru didn't look that much older from three years ago. Thanks to that people only rule the resemblance striking but obviously coincidental. It was a popular fact that King Takeru was dead. After Takeru ate breakfast, sneaking some to Patamon also, both boys got dressed for the day. Takeru wearing a black fisher hat, a short sleeved red shirt, black shorts, and red and black sneakers. Iori wore casual wear of a purple v neck, with pants, and his slip on shoes. Iori glanced at his sneakers looking at the toe as he sees a faded red. He shivers every time he sees it, and no amount of scrubbing could seem to wipe it off despite it being barely seeable. Takeru was indifferent to Iori's uneasiness as he stood in front the door with Patamon on his head.

"We're going to meet with our friends, we'll see you guys later," Iori called snapping out his stupor after seeing Takeru.

"Alright be careful," called Iori's mother. They both stepped outside and into the warm summer air and walked toward the elevator. "Sorry…"

"For the hundredth time, it's over, I'm fine, it doesn't matter anymore,"

"But I could've-,"

"You could've, but you didn't. Just take satisfaction that you're better than me,"

Iori fell silent. "Hey I wonder what the other us are like," Upamon suddenly outburst.

"Other us…oh you mean the other dimension versions of us. Yeah, I wonder what we're like in other dimensions too,"

"It's kinda weird," Takeru explained. "It's like they are exactly like you….but at the same time they're not,"

"That's as clear as mud…" Irori complained.

"Well whatever, you may not even meet your other self, this is supposed to be a fight for survival not a field trip to other dimensions," Takeru said pressing the button on the elevator. They went down to the bottom floor then stepped out to see a patiently waiting Miyako. Her lavender hair swayed as she turned her head to look at them somewhat with aggressive intent.

"There you two are, I thought I'd be stuck waiting all day. You'd swear you were trying to sleep your lives away," Miyako said with clear annoyance.

"She's just mad because she made a mess in the store and her parents kicked her out," Poromon explained.

"It wasn't my fault!"

"Anyway I wasn't wasting time with wasteful rest," Iori explained.

"Just us," Takeru and Patamon stated proudly.

"It took some time to get them up…"

"Well can't say I blame em, you guys should take it easy," Miyako advised.

"Easy?" Takeru responded. "Chronomon recognizes us as a serious threat to him more so than the other three,"

"Oh really, why is that?" Miyako responded pretending to look at her nails.

"In terms of raw power, that would be me. Despite our similarities, I've figured out that each bearer of hope has their own strength," Takeru explained as he began walking and forcing Iori and Miyako to follow him. "Example one, TK is powerful enough to match me in terms of power, but he can't overpower me. He's fast, and strong, much more balanced out of the rest of us. Tak has the strongest bond with his Digimon then any of us being that he fights with him on every level. I say battle skill wise he's superior and possibly more seasoned in terms of combat. Finally, Hope, he's…an enigma really. Haven't gotten a chance to see him in action yet, but yours truly is a powerhouse,"

"Yep, a powerhouse," Patamon agreed flexing his arms.

"If you guys say so," Iori stated.

"So where are we off to today?" Miyako asked.

"Not sure, Hikari said she really wanted to meet up in the park for some reason," Takeru said.

"A day at the park sounds lovely, good thing I grabbed some stuff before my parents kicked me out for something that was not my fault to begin with. They should put stuff on lower shelves…" Miyako whined.

"Hmm…wonder how the other me's are…" Takeru muttered. He reached into his pocket to slip a device in his ear he tapped a button then open a chat with the other Takerus. "Hello?"

"Hey!" came an excited voice.

"What is it!" came a slightly irritated voice.

"Yes," came a calm voice out of the other two.

"What's going on guys?"

"What's going on?" TK mocked sounded somewhat annoyed. "I'm dealing with a pack of bug Digimon called Mothmon, and they just keep coming!" TK grunts as he seemed to be in the midst of the fight possibly as Seraphimon.

"Mothmon?" Takeru questioned.

"Yeah, apparently their created when Patamon uses the Digi-Egg of Knowledge to Digivolve,"

"You had to go mega over a few armored levels?"

"A few is like less than five, there are THOUSANDS here! Plus they fight like Ultimate level!"

"Need help?"

"Nah, I can handle this solo…ugh…darn bugs…oh crap call back later!" And like that TK's signal went silent.

"Alright how about you other guys?" Takeru asked.

"Having a hard time myself. A SlashAngemon is here making trouble for me. But I'll be alright, I got half my team with me," there was a loud crash on Tak's end and a grunt that followed. "Thanks for calling, but I gotta go," Tak's end then went silent.

"Seems like quite a bit of trouble those two are in," replied Hope casually.

"Sounds like you're just kicking back,"

"Nonsense, no time for that. I'm spearing heading this problem head on trying to study these portals and analyze a way to stop this permanently. This strategy of ours' only serves as a defensive one. However, I am currently not engaged, and from the tone you're taking I suppose you aren't either. Call if you need assistance, and please only if you need assistance I don't want distractions," And like that Hope hung up as well.

"Well, I never," Takeru stated in mock offense.

"Sounds like that Hope guy likes to keep everything strictly business," Miyako said.

"He could at least try and be nice," Iori huffed.

"Ah well, he's still a Takeru, we're all a little hard to understand, but it isn't impossible,"

At that statement they arrived at the park. Waiting for them were Hikari, Daisuke, and Ken. When the three arrived they were welcomed and they all sat down for a moment. Apparently Hikari had wanted them all together for a small picnic she put together for everyone. She said it was a way to ease tension and increase morale being that Takeru is on the frontlines so much. Despite himself Takeru was grateful for the effort though deep down he felt he wasn't worth it.

"Everything here is great Hikari!" Daisuke exclaimed stuffing his face.

"No problem, just don't chock I don't know if anyone here knows the Heimlich," Hikari said. Ken began to raise his hand, but Miyako slowly pulled his arm back down.

"Thanks, Hikari," Patamon stated happily.

"Of course, we would be in some deep trouble with you Patamon,"

"Hey what about us?" Gatomon groaned.

"Like we could forget about you guys, you've been just as helpful," Miyako added. Hikari eyes gazed over to Takeru who clearly felt out of place. They all were sitting in a circle, but Takeru was sitting in a way that the circle looked slightly broken. Close enough to be considered part of them, but far enough to go mostly unnoticed.

"Takeru," Hikari said placing attention on him. Takeru turned his gaze to her and then to everyone. He sighed as he scoots closer in to complete the circle making Hikari smile at him. "Thank you,"

"Ah, don't tell me you still feel out of place with us," Daisuke said with a great lack of tact.

"Well, I can't help it. Trapped in this little kid body in the real world, but I return to my proper age in the Digital World, or sometimes it's vice versa some days, and to top it off these crazy Digimon that attack at random is running me ragged…"

"Well you've only got yourself to blame for that last one," Daisuke said stuffing his face.

"How so?"

"What Daisuke means is you wouldn't be so run down if you asked us for assistance. Then you wouldn't have to work as hard," Ken explained.

"Yeah, I mean you've taken on some heavy hitters. Two SlashAngemon, a stamped of Pegasusmon, three MagnaAngemons, and a Shokkuamon. Dude, those guys are already powerful themselves, but add in Chronomon's power and they could be darn near unbeatable!" Daisuke explained.

"And a Stegomon," Patamon added.

"And all that was in just one day," Wormon stated.

"Imagine that on a daily basis, eventually you guys would get creamed," Gatomon pointed out.

"Not because you're not strong enough, but because you're wearing yourselves out," Hikari quickly added seeing Takeru and Patamon's sharp gaze at Gatomon.

"Well what do you want us to do? We can't ignore the creatures that come out the portals. We try and close them before anything even pops out,"

"Well that's great but we usually don't know about the portals opening until after the fighting is over," Poromon said.

"And you guys ignore the fact when you're hurt," Upamon said.

"What do you want us to do?" Takeru asked annoyed.

"ASK FOR HELP!" they all yelled at him making him flinch back.

"We don't care who from, I mean we'd prefer it to be us, but just someone," Iori said.

"Alright I get it, ask for help…but only if I need it,"

"Also, a quick message before the fight wouldn't hurt either," Hikari added.

"This picnic seems to have a lot of conditions,"

"Also Koushiro really wants you prepared for what comes out these portals so you have to study the evolution chain. Like everyone has been telling you,"

"Fine!" Takeru said throwing his arms up. "What else?"

"PORTAL ALERT!" came Takeru's ear piece device. Takeru jumped at the timing then reached into his pocket then placed it in his ear, after that he tapped the small button on the side. The headset created a holographic screen in front of Takeru's right eye then a map of Japan appeared as the locator signal began dancing around until it locked on to the target. "PORTAL LOCACTED: TOKYO,"

"Oh, seems like a portal just opened up in Tokyo," Takeru sighed as he stood to his feet. "Least it's in the real world where I can get to it faster,"

"Ahem!" Miyako coughed as if she was clearing her throat. This alerted Takeru of everyone's presence and that everyone was staring at him.

"Alright, fine, let me see how many there are first and then we'll see," Takeru responded. He tapped the side of his headset in a certain combination to open up a line to Koushiro. The map was then replaced by the red head in question. Takeru saw that he had clearly surprised Koushiro greatly. "You get the portal alert too?"

"Yes…I…just saw and assumed you would just go about handling it like you usually do," Koushiro sat up a bit in a show of concern. "Something wrong, you can't fight?"

"No it's not that, I just wanna know how many there are. See if I might need backup,"

"You, need back up?" Koushiro questioned with a raised eyebrow.

"Just check please,"

"As you wish sire," Koushiro jabbed making Takeru wince despite the clear joking nature Koushiro said it in. "Only one,"

"Only one, really?"

"Yeah, just one, but you'd still better handle it quick before it does too much damaged. Tokyo is a pretty heavily populated area. But if you give me a minute I'll see what kind of-,"

"Right, thanks Koushiro," Takeru hung up before the redhead could finish than he turned to his friends. "See, only one."

"That sounds too good to be true," Ken said.

"But since there is only one there's no reason for all of us to go charging in. I can handle this myself no problem, besides I wouldn't want to take you guys too far from home. A flight like that could take a while just by myself. Plus there is always a chance that Chronomon might get desperate and open two portals so it'd be great to have you guys fresh and ready to go,"

"Alright, fine then, but contact us if you need help and we will be over there in a flash with Imperialdramon," Daisuke said.

"Right," Takeru pulled out his black and green D-3 and held it up above his head. "**SACRED DIGIVOLUTION,**"

"**PATAMON SACRED DIGIVOLVE TO…NOIRSERAPHIMON!**"

"Catch ya guys later," NoirSeraphimon stated as he shot off in the air then rushed off at Mach speed. NoirSeraphimon flew at top speed easily breaking the sound barrier as he flew toward the portal that had opened in downtown Tokyo. The city was pretty far, and honestly NoirSeraphimon really didn't want to go. But he felt that alone was the best way to handle this despite how many there were, since Tokyo was the first major city he flattened. Also, he knew that he'd be exposed this time. All those other fights had taken place in the Digital World, or he was able to draw the fight were there were less people. This time however, there was no way anyone wasn't going to see him, the monster that destroyed the world. It wasn't a moment later until inside NoirSeraphimon Takeru was getting a call himself. However, he wasn't exactly in the position to ignore it so it opened up to reveal an irritated Koushiro.

"I wasn't done talking," Koushiro said with a slight glare. He always hated being interrupted one of his pet peeves.

"Fine as you were saying,"

"I was saying that I'm going to scan and see how powerful the target is. I already did that now and I can tell you, this guy will not be easy despite there only being one. It's energy is an armored aura…but different somehow…"

"An armored level, is an armored level. I'll be done before ya know it,"

"Be careful," Koushiro said. Takeru seemed taken aback by the concern and looked at Koushiro to see that the feeling was genuine.

"The moment I need help I will let you know," Takeru said as honestly as he could. After that the conversation ended and Takeru refocused his mind back to meld with Patamon's to focus as NoirSerpahimon just as they arrived at Tokyo. He had flown past the outskirts of the city and was now arriving to see...

"What the heck!" NoirSeraphimon exclaimed seeing an entire downtown area in ruins. The Digimon that appeared must have only been there for ten minutes, but to cause such destruction was unthinkable. "Koushiro was right this is no regular armor level,"

NoirSeraphimon flew over the city but not getting too close that he'd be seen. He kept a watchful eye as he scanned the area for his target. Suddenly, a huge dust cloud caught his attention followed by a loud crash. The black angel wasted no time and flew toward the sound making a fast dive. He saw a dust trail heading toward a medical center. He acted quickly landing in front of the trail and holding his ground. However, he was downright startled that the Digimon was able to make him lose ground as he slid back. Growling in anger NoirSeraphimon pulled back his left arm to reveal his red Excalibur blade as he brought it down harshly causing a geyser of dust to shoot into the air. NoirSeraphimon wasn't sure what he hit, but he knew he hit something. He grabbed the creature then began plowing it through the concrete away from the medical center and back toward the more ruined downtown area knowing the people would be mostly clear. NoirSeraphimon would've preferred the outskirts, but his opponent was clearly set on ruining the city as it threw off the angel. He recovered in the air then lands on the ground to show both his red Excalibur blades. He studied the dust until eventually it cleared up enough for the angel to see just who his opponent is and he was pretty surprised too.

"What the?" NoirSeraphimon stated in confusion. It saw it looked like a four legged mammal with a large sharp sword like horn on it's nose, the golden armor covered the it's entire body except the under area which has black armor, and it stood tall standing over NoirSeraphimon. It looked shockingly like a rhino, but about more than half the size of a Mammothmon. NoirSeraphimon studied it quizzically until he saw a familiar symbol on it's back. He immediately contacted his redheaded computer buddy. "Oh crap, Koushiro I need a profile check!"

"On what?" the red head responded rather quickly.

"Cross reference Patamon and the Digi-Egg of Miracles!" he demanded.

"_**Split Blade!**_" the golden armor Digimon exclaimed rushing forward toward the Angel. It thrust it's horn forward and NoirSeraphimon responded defensively, but the sheer power of this Digimon was so great that the moment contact was made an explosive wave shattered the surrounding area. NoirSeraphimon went sliding against the ground as he groaned in pain.

"Ah…damn…such power…"

"Alright Takeru here's what I got. A Digimon called Rhinomon. Born from the Digi-Egg of miracles from Patamon's evolution line. Just like a real Rhino this thing is packed with all types of raw power. And because of that Digi-Egg is the same one Veemon uses to become Magnamon this will not be an easy fight. You might've met you're match in terms of raw power here Takeru, I think some back up will do you some good,"

However, that statement prompted a harsh growl from NoirSeraphimon. In terms of raw power, nothing comes close to him, and to feel like something actually challenges that was a blow to his pride. Despite himself he decided that he'd call for back up when or if the battle falls out of his favor. Chronomon basically challenged his might and he wasn't going to stand for it! NoirSeraphimon let out a harsh roar of rage as his blades started emitting pure dark red energy. "Come on then,"

As asked, Rhinomon rushed forward toward NoirSeraphimon head on and the angel took the same approach. However, being that the last two head on strikes nearly destroyed the already ruined portion of the city NoirSeraphimon opted to divert his attack into the side of Rhinomon's head. This threw the charging Digimon off balance. Thus allowing NoirSeraphimon to follow up with another attack. "_Seven Hells!"_ He exclaimed sending out seven stars into the giant's back. The Rhinomon roared in outrage as it slid across the dirt, but it would not yield to the attack as it managed to push past it scattering the stars. NoirSeraphimon growled as he rushed Rhinomon head on clashing his blades with Rhinomon's horn. The two were in a dead even match of raw power. However, because Rhinomon clearly weighed more, it started to win out forcing NoirSeraphimon into an awkward position of defense.

"Takeru, I'm letting the others know that-," Koushiro began.

"I got this!" NoirSeraphimon yelled slipping to the side to allow Rhinomon to pass through. The beast circled back around and went charging back at NoirSeraphimon. The angel decided to stop fighting on this creature's terms and return to his element. NoirSeraphimon took to the sky over the charge this time. Once above, NoirSeraphimon took sharp dives downward slashing at Rhinomon from different angles. It clearly felt each blow as it was struggling to escape the slashing attacks. It quickly about faced to jump up attempting to knock NoirSeraphimon back. The attack cancelled out NoirSeraphimon's previous strike making both combatants fall back. "_Shadow Blast!"_

NoirSeraphimon unleashed a narrow beam of dark red energy at Rhinomon making the beast flinch as it was plowed into the ground. After this NoirSeraphimon let up then rushed the mammal head on, but the Digimon bashed NoirSeraphimon harshly throwing him into the ground. NoirSeraphimon turned to Rhinomon to gasp in shock as the creature charged a giant ball of energy on it's horn.

"_Atomic Burst!"_ Rhinomon exclaimed unleashing a massive energy wave that collided with NoirSeraphimon. The blast that followed after the attack was overpowering and near inconceivable as to what could survive it. Rhinomon stomped across the barren brunt land of the nearly wasted downtown Tokyo area. The area couldn't take anymore of this fight and it was beginning to show. "Wow, you are really strong!" gasped the Rhinomon in a young TK's voice. NoirSeraphimon was barely able to remove a large pile of rubble he was buried under. His stance was weak as he tried to catch his breath. "Normally, that would have been enough to finish most other beings like you, but you're different…"

"What…stop speaking in our voice!" NoirSeraphimon growled.

"Our?" Rhinomon questioned before realizing his meaning. "Oh, it upsets you that the voice I'm using sounds like you, how about," A moment went by. "This," The voice was now an older version of TK's voice.

"How?"

"I've already assimilated possibly half of the universe of the one's known as the Carrier of Hope, but still TK Prime evades me,"

"What do you plan on doing if you even capture TK Prime?" NoirSeraphimon asked struggling to his feet.

"Create a new world, one world, one story. A new realm with new rules, unlike this one that limits what we are and who we can be. That's not real, and it's not fate. Just a few using the power they have to control what they deem is law. And you get to be part of that," Rhinomon began charging toward NoirSeraphimon with his sword like horn positioned to impale the downed angel.

"Maybe…but good thing I called in back up…"

"_Strike of the Seven Heaven Stars!"_ a blast of golden stars slammed into Rhinomon's side slamming him into the ground and greatly weakening it. NoirSeraphimon struggled to stand holding his arm as he turned toward the light. He sees a Seraphimon but he is covered in golden armor, with the trim of his armor white, a shining golden cross on his helmet, an orange shinning symbol of the crest of Hope, white wings, and a rider on his shoulder. The rider turned out to be Hope, the twenty year old version of Takeru. He has golden eyes, the crest of hope around his neck with a black shirt, dark blue pants, and dark blue boots. His head was devoid of a hat though showing his natural blonde hair in all it's glory.

"GoldSeraphimon keep Rhinomon busy for the moment," Hope told his partner. The angel nods then reveals two golden blades from the armor on his forearm then rushes off to confront the dazed Rhinomon. "Seems like you got lucky that you were able to survive that last blow,"

"Lucky huh…" NoirSeraphimon moaned as he stumbled over to Hope. "You sure took your sweet time…"

"Gathering information on our subject. He is powerful, and so are you which is why I couldn't let you go in this alone as you had so passionately stated before. Plus locating the portal was somewhat difficult in the rubble of the city. Also we cannot afford to lose any of us at this point, and that little insight into what exactly Chronomon is after proves to be useful later,"

"Can we focus on one thing at time?" NoirSeraphimon growled.

"Can you still hold that form for one final attack?"

"We only have one in us,"

"Alright then follow my exact instructions, and follow GoldSeraphimon's lead,"

GoldSeraphimon moved elegantly around Rhinomon's attacks. He lacked NoirSeraphimon's raw power so he was forced to mostly dodge. He avoid a charge but ran his sword downt he creature's back harshly as he went by. Rhinomon about faced then jumped up to slam on the angel. "_Split Blade!"_

GoldSeraphimon narrowly avoided the blade of the horn by flying underneath the strike. "_Holy Excalibur_!" the golden angel exclaimed as he performed rapid jabs with both swords at the underbelly of the beast and then slipping away before being crushed. When Rhinomon touched back down there was a clear indication that he was unsteady and off balanced.

"There, GoldSeraphimon struck at the joints in his legs, his strength should be cut dramatically, this should even the odds enough for the two of you to finish this,"

"Right here goes," NoirSeraphimon rushed forward with GoldSeraphimon by his side. Suddenly the two angels began glowing as they feed off each other's energy. They twirled around each other then rushed forward in a blistering show of speed. Rhinomon attempted to respond by unleashing another _Atomic Burst_.

"_**Double Angel Slash!"**_ Both Seraphimon exclaimed as blur passed by Rhinomon before his attack could be completed. There was a moment of silence until Rhinomon's armor started to crack and then slowly crumbled to pieces. Until the Digimon burst into dust.

"Incredible…" Hope gasped at the sheer display of power. He had never seen two Digimon join up in such a way to completely overwhelm an enemy. Both angels were clearly thrown for a loop to. However, NoirSeraphimon's energy finally ran out as Takeru and Patamon collapsed. However, GoldSeraphimon was quick to sweep the two into his arms then turned toward Hope who sighs. "Seems we have to drop them off…"

"Hope," Seraphimon said calmly as he approached his partner. "These creatures are getting stronger, and that strange power..."

"I know, this calls for a lot more investigation. But first we have to return these two back to their home," Hope pressed a button on his earpiece to get in contact with Koushiro. "This is Hope, your friend is unconscious at the moment, my partner is bringing him back to you," Hope said without waiting for a response. He opened a portal to go back to his world, but before he stepped through he turned to his partner. "Don't take too long, we still have a lot of work to do," GoldSeraphimon nods in understanding. Hope returns the gesture as he steps through afterwards the portal closes as GoldSeraphimon shot off into the air.


	7. True and False

_**Digimon Universe part 7**_

"_**True and False,"**_

In another world, at another time… a young man was hard at work writing on what appeared to be a laser board of some kind. He is in what appeared to be a study with numerous books all shelved neatly on one side of the room in a tall book case. The other wall consisted of the board, and in between the two is a large oak desk. The room was bland at best having no personality or any showing of what kind of person used it. Just tan walls, brown carpet and one window with the blinds drawn. With the young man, he is writing on a thin board with a marker in hand as he began writing down numerous thoughts and ideas. Placing names down, percentages, strengths, weaknesses, and all battle observations he's made up to this point. He was quite dedicated to master this information and understanding what it all meant. However, one thing he knew next to nothing about was surrounded by question marks, the name was Chronomon. The name was an enigma, the power the creature held unmeasured, and the potential danger the universe was in, extreme. That was just about all he knew, and he hated not knowing the full story.

A glowing vortex of light shined behind him and out stepped a golden angel. The young man didn't even turn to face him or greet him still absorbed in his work. But he managed to glance back with his eyes. "What took so long, I expected you back sooner?"

"Takeru's living situation is quite complicated; he managed to awaken before I could actually drop him off. I couldn't drop him off at his mother's house, or at the Hida's residence either. In his condition I had to deliver him to his world's Reliable," GoldSeraphimon explained as he shrunk down back to Patamon. The look of this Patamon was the same as any other, except for his golden eyes and larger size. "You seem troubled,"

"I am…the information I have isn't shallow at all. I need more if we want to win this fight. This plan Hakeru gave us is futile and will only delay the inevitable,"

"You work too hard,"

"Well someone has too,"

"You know you don't have to prove anything,"

"I'm supposed to give everyone hope, that's my responsibility. It's why I'm here,"

"That's true when it deals with fighting, not living. You should try harder at creating your own life. Before you know it you're gonna turn into Knowledge,"

"I think I'm better at drawing the line simply through my genes,"

"Whatever the case. You should try and get to know the others,"

"Others?"

"Ya know, your others,"

"They're not my others,"

"They are now, you don't have to out work them to prove something. You're great, no matter what you do, so why not take a break," Hope groaned at the comment. "You're at a dead end anyway, you may as well take a break and feed me,"

Hope stifled a chuckle. "Ah so that's what it was. Usually, you'd just go about your merry way unless you're hungry,"

"So?" his Patamon said landing on his shoulder. Hope smirked as he sat the marker down for the moment. He walked out toward the exit of the room to almost bump into another young man slightly older than him.

"Careful Knowledge," his partner warned keeping the young man from colliding with Hope and helping him keep papers straight.

"Oh sorry," Knowledge said offhandedly. Then he simply slipped inside the Study with Tentomon offering a quick apology and followed him.

"And I'm just like that?" Hope asked.

"Well…I guess you're not that bad…" Patamon admitted. Hope navigated the halls of the mansion like facility. Hope casually walked through the halls heading toward the kitchen since his Patamon so desperately wanted food. He supposed a snack would do them both some good. After a few twist and turns of the home he arrives in the kitchen where he sees Sincerity and Palmon in the midst of making something. "Mmm…that smells good…" Patamon moaned.

Sincerity smiled sweetly at the new arrivals, which made Hope flinch back a bit. He knew that look, she must've just tried a new recipe and she needed a geannie pig. Hope saw himself and Patamon in a possibly precarious situation. On one hand Sincerity was a pretty good cook and the meals she made were often quite tasty. However, the dark side of it is that the food can sometimes taste the polar opposite. No one understood it. One day her cooking would be held as the finest of foods. Other days it caused explosive cases of food poisoning, and other hazards. The Digimon made up most of the good reviews since they weren't hard to please as long as it's not dirt or totally disgusting.

"Hi guys, I'm trying this new roast recipe I found, wanna try some?" Hope had long learned the proper way of answering this question.

"I would, but I know Patamon is hungry and he's not fond of sharing," Hope said excusing himself. He learned that saying he wasn't hungry didn't work, and that one little taste could indeed hurt. So he allowed his Digimon to serve as the taste tester. It seemed to not matter to Patamon that he was being used as a scapegoat. Hope sighed in relief as he watched his Digimon rush over to sample the roast. This left Hope a moment to himself as he stepped out to think. He stood against the wall in the main family room for a moment. His mind once again wandered to Chronomon. Clearly the creature was powerful, and from what was previously stated it has already consumed numerous other Takerus. He wondered how the worlds would hold up with…the Death of hope. Hope had wanted to take a peek in these other worlds but his ear piece is only linked to the other worlds of TK, Tak, and Takeru. He wanted so badly to view what the worlds were like beyond this one.

"Hey there," came a voice to his right. He jumped in surprise at the intrusion of his thoughts and looked to see it is Light, this world's Kari, and her catlike Digimon Gatmon loyally by her side. Light is like Hope but is an older version of Kari. Her hair is kept in a ponytail, pink highlights, bright pink eyes, and she stood a few inches shorter then Hope. She wears a white tank top, a white skirt, and white slipper shoes. "I see you have your thinking face on,"

"And knowing that you interrupt my thinking," he said with a frown. She planted a small kiss on his check to make his frown lessen.

"Well you do it a lot already, I don't see why you keep troubling yourself. Chronomon is an issue we can deal with,"

"You don't fully understand Light,"

"Well, from what conversations I've had with the other holders of Light, the four of you are going to wind up getting yourselves killed," she said with a distasteful look at him as she folds her arms. Hope bit back his tongue surprised.

"How did you-?"

"I used Knowledge's computer to get in contact with the other Kari's. We all have a unanimous vote that you guys may wind up getting yourselves killed if you don't learn how to work with each other, and work with us!"

"What?"

"TK took on a whole horde of Digimon and didn't so much as call for help. He got roughed up pretty bad from what I heard. Takeru, as I'm sure you know, was beaten up so bad he was bleeding, yet he never called for any help,"

"Well he called me prior to his beat down," Hope justified.

"And Tak seems like he has the opposite problem. The others won't stop helping him to the point they try and cut him out the fighting all together," Gatomon added.

"He is the weakest link out of the four of us,"

"Well he won't get any stronger unless he Digivolves, or however it works in that world,"

"Yeah, Kar is really worried that if Chronomon finds out how disadvantage he is that he'll send something really bad that could really hurt him and the others will have no way of helping him," Light explained.

"So what we gotta babysit him?"

"The least you can do is watch out for him,"

"Fine, anything else?"

Light looked quite offended. "Do you feel I am nagging you?"

"Uh oh…" Gatomon muttered stalking off to the side.

"Uh, n-no of course not," Hope quickly said stepping into defense mode while holding his hands up in a surrendering motion.

"Then why do you sound so annoyed?"

"I just-well, uh I'm…" Hope stopped his stuttering realizing there was no right answer to this question so he just sighed admitting his defeat.

"We're all worried about this thing Hope, and we don't know what it'll do if it gets you,"

"Isn't that obvious, it'll kill me," Light's eyes tensed up a bit at his word choice.

"Yeah, but if that was the case then wouldn't it be easier to use the knowledge of Hakeru, the most powerful TK in the universe, to destroy everyone. It seems like this thing has another play it's trying to get at," Gatomon gave her input. Hope looked at the cat Digimon then to the floor in thought. That was a very good point. Hope is one of the strongest powers the Digidestined have. It has the power of two Seraphimons, Hakeru, and is slowly growing stronger as it opens portals in different worlds. If the Death of the wielders of hope is the goal surely it would be easier to do it in one foul swoop then sending an entire Digital Line after them.

"This calls for a bit more research," Hope said brightly glad that the road block from looking into the matter more was gone. He looked to Light with a smile as he hugged her thanking her for the talk.

"Buy me dinner and we'll call it even," she said, however in the back of her mind she felt that Hope was only grateful for the helpful words to his research and not the ones about everyone's concern for his safety.

Suddenly, there was a ringing sound coming from Hope's pocket. He quickly fished it out to put it in his ear. When he did a holographic screen appeared over his right eye that was flashing the word alert in red. The screen displayed a distortion in space and a Digimon was appearing in the real world somewhere close by. "Well now…let's see what Digimon I must deal with…huh a Baromon,"

"How many?" Light asked.

"Just one, sounds simple enough," Hope turned towards the kitchen. "Patamon we gotta go!" he called the winged Digimon.

"Hope, I understand that it's only one but these guys are getting stronger. The numbers of enemies are decreasing but the amount of power they have is increasing,"

"How do you know that?"

"Because I actually talk to the other me's to try and understand and get a full spectrum. Hint I'm learning more about this Chronomon then you are on your own brain power,"

"They aren't really you, ya know that right…" Hope stated.

"I don't care!" Light exclaimed. "I know what we are, to this world, but we're still part of it like it or not. We play our part here, but it shows that we can be more if you could understand the vastness of what you're fighting for,"

"Please, tell me what I'm fighting for, what all of us are fighting for,"

"Well at first it was to prove that we were better, and for acceptance. That's how all of us felt at first," Light then stared sternly at Hope. "But now it's just you,"

"Whatever, I have to go, Patamon come on!" Hope called again moving past Light to head toward another room.

"Iamam cuomang!" Patamon cried with a face full of food as he flapped his wings to fly through the room and after Hope.

"Ugh, another fight…this starting to scare me Gatomon. We've been fighting more and more lately…"

"I know, I miss the days when you had him tied around your little finger," Gatomon snickered. However, upon seeing her partner's worried face she got serious in order to comfort her partner. "He's under a lot of stress, a super powerful being wanting to hunt you down can do that to you. I'm sure he feels like he doesn't want anyone involved cause he doesn't want anyone hurt. That's who is, right down to his DNA, can't fight genetics,"

"So what about me and him…are we just living out a fantasy or a relationship that was already decided?"

"You guys have to realize that you still have choices despite where you came from. You and him broke up at least three times so it's hard to say when you two will finally decide to stop fooling around!"

"The first time was because we were nine and everyone said we were too young for that," Light said with a smile as she sat down. "Ugh!"

"Hey Light what's wrong?" Courage said popping his head into the room.

"Men,"

"…" Courage gave her a blank stare before slowly retreating back from whence he came.

"Next time I'll say something like being bicurious," Light sighed. It was known by everyone that Hope and Light's relationship was complicated, and under no circumstance should you give advice, get involved, or takes sides. When the two strongest members of your team have a falling out, everyone loses.

"Smart move Courage, smart move…" Gatomon muttered in a low voice.

(BREAK)

Currently Hope was riding on the shoulder of his GoldSeraphimon as they flew through the air at super speeds. They went past the rooftops of cities, covering miles of land in mere minutes. They were heading toward a popular location, a place called Mount Fuji, and a very popular tourist attraction. Hope was well aware of the dangers of the civilians getting in the way. Boramon was possibly causing mass chaos as do all the other strange Digimon Chronomon sends.

"To what end does sending these Digimon meet?" Hope wondered aloud.

"Testing us maybe," GoldSeraphimon responded.

"For what?"

"Who knows, but I certainly feel tested. He's sending creatures that are powerful, but not entirely impossible to defeat. Honestly, so far nothing has challenged us. Separately the four of us are nearly unstoppable and there isn't really anything he can do, so the question is what is he really up to?"

"I aim to find out right now," Hope said as they approached the scene from above. Hope had grabbed a light jacket before heading out and as GoldSeraphimon touched down he threw himself off the angel's shoulder. There were numerous people panicking and running away from the base of the mountain that was being pelted with large boulders. The duo looked up to see Baromon on the side of mountain causing mass chaos.

"Is he trying to kill someone!?" Hope gasped.

"…Seems like he's trying to clear the people out," his partner corrected.

"A super dimensional being cares about collateral damage?"

"Apparently,"

"Well let's go ask why," Hope said as GoldSeraphimon picked him back up to soar through the air. As they got closer they were able to make out what had to be Baromon. The Digimon had on strange tribal garbs possibly based on the religion of Buddhism. Crazed blue face showing his yellow teeth, wild red hair, beady eyes, wearing a traveler's cloak, with brown gloves and boots, and tribal gown. Baromon stared down the mega and his partner.

"_Meteor-,"_

"WAIT!" Hope called making the Digimon stop in the middle of his attack. GoldSeraphimon was a little surprised that worked. "Chronomon, what is it that you want?" Hope demanded. Baromon simply stared at Hope with a blank expression.

"Hope, you might be wasting your breath. Chronomon's consciousness is spread too thin for him to focus on just us,"

"**You're wrong about that,"** came Chronomon's voice in the voice of a young 8 year old Takeru. "**You four are the ones who have my absolute attention. I mean those other Takashi's in the universe are so pathetic, weeding them out has been so mundane,"**

"What is the point of all this Chronomon?" Hope said stepping forward. "Why keep fighting this useless battle, you'll never beat us with the Digimon you're sending?"

"**Have you ever felt that life wasn't fair?"**

"What?"

"**That everything is predetermined, that it is fate that we are who we are and we never truly have the right of choice,"**

"What are you saying?" GoldSeraphimon asked growing tired of the misleading nature of Chronomon's responses.

"**The Universe is composed of rules and regulations placed in each dimension. The Digidestined exist to fight alongside Digimon. Sometimes for good, sometimes for evil, but there is never a choice of not choosing to fight. There is never a choice of truly being free to be who you are. The universe is made of carbon copies all performing the same task over and over in different ways. The monotone has to end!"**

"You're crazy,"

"**No, it is this multiverse that is crazy, it's pure insanity. Going through the same thing over and over and expecting to get a different result,"**

"What are you talking about?"

"**Ah, you have not seen what I have seen. The X Digidestined kept a lot from Hakeru…but then again he kept secrets of his own…"**

"Secrets, what secrets?" Hope asked feeling a motive coming on. Could it be that Hakeru instilled Chronomon with the drive to destroy the universe?

"**You'll have to keep playing…"** Chronomon's childish voice teased as Baromon looked to come out his statue state.

"Wait!" Hope yelled stepping forward, but Baromon was back in attack mode before he knew it.

"_Meteor Dance!_"Baromon exclaimed performing a set of movements that unleashed a raining storm of meteors down on Hope and GoldSeraphimon.

"Fine, play it that way," Hope said annoyed as he and his partner fell back flying away from the hailing storm to avoid damage. However, the attack did serious damage to the side of the mountain. Hope knew that despite common belief that the mountain is an actual volcano that could possibly do serious damage if it did erupt. He realized the chances of it happening were slim to none, but if Baromon kept up with attacks like that it would be impossible to avoid. "Set me down and go at him,"

"You sure?" his partner asked.

"I'll be fine, go," Hope said. GoldSeraphmon chose a high perch overlooking the fight then went back down to confront Barmon directly. A golden blade shot out each are respectively. The angel rushed forward with the intent to cut down Baromon.

"_Holy Excalibur!"_

"_Storming Knives!" _Baromon reacted unleashing glowing knife like objects from the inside of his cloak as it went rushing at GoldSeraphimon. The angel deflected each attempt easily and avoiding any damage. He pushed through the attack to unleash a sword beam of holy energy that went rushing at Baromon. It made contact slamming the Digimon into the side of the mountain.

"This ends now," GoldSeraphimon said simply rushing forward. However, the unexpected happened as suddenly a powerful burst of flames slammed into the angel throwing him away and toward the base of the mountain. Hope looked in awe struck to see Baromon floating in the air covered in flames. The Digimon rose into the air toward the summit of the mountain.

"What is he up to?" Hope said curiously. He figured he got his answer as the mountain began to shake viciously signaling an eruption.

"Impossible, Mount Fuji shouldn't be erupting!" Hope exclaimed trying not to fall of his perch. "GoldSeraphimon!" he called as the angel rushed to him in mere moments.

"Stop him, he's going to awaken the volcano,"

"Alright, let me get you somewhere safe first,"

"No time just go!"

"But-,"

"I'll be fine, I'm not defenseless, go!" the angel clearly had some reserves but appealed to his partner's interest as he went toward the sumit. Hope pulled out his communication device then pressed a button on the side. "Listen, I may need some assistance, get here as soon as you can," he said. The mountain began to shake even more then before as the lava on the inside of the mountain was coming to a boil after so many years.

GoldSeraphimon was at the top by now looking on the sides of to see Baromon, on fire, seeming trying to call out the dormant lava from the inside. The golden angel dove toward the Digimon to halt the ritual before it could go any further. Baromon noticed him and turned to hold up his hands to unleash a stream of lava at the angel. GoldSeraphimon narrowly dodged it, but felt the heat of the attack all the same which made him fault a bit. Baromon unleashed another _Storming Knives_ at the angel throwing him out the air and roughly to the ground. Baromon then performed a _Meteor Dance_ to rain down more pain onto the angel while he was down. However, GoldSeraphimon was far from out. He rushed forward showing his golden blades and slashed at Baromon. The tribal Digimon barely avoided the attack, but was knocked away by another sword beam in the shape of an X. Baromon struggled to get back up, but GoldSeraphimon would give him no chance.

"_Golden Blast!" _GoldSeraphimon exclaimed shooting a golden beam from his chest. The attack went straight for Baromon but somehow the Digimon used the lava to shield himself from the blast. But the shockwave through him into the bubbling lava in the mountain. "Well that's that," he moved to return to his partner, but was rudely interrupted by a streaming of lava slamming into his turned back. The scolding hot liquid mixed in with the shock threw the golden angel out the air and rolling down the entirety of the mountain. Hope saw his rapidly falling partner and called out his name. The mountain again shook making Hope almost lose his footing, but he managed to stay on. However, he saw the lava seeping out the top at a steady pace as it came racing towards him. In the lava he could make out the visage of Baromon clearly still alive and all powerful thanks to the volcano. Baromon reached out for Hope making him cringe back having him choose from a deadly fall to burning to death.

"_Hallowed Knuckle!" _a sphere of energy slammed into Baromon throwing his lava fused body back and Hope was scooped up by another angel Digimon. Hope observed it to see it was Seraphimon, but not his Seraphimon. It lacked the golden armor, but it has gold wings and a golden cross with the crest of hope blazing on his chest. "Thank you for flying air Seraphimon," the angel said as it returns to the base of the mountain to where GoldSeraphimon was gathering himself. Hope leaped out Seraphimon's arms and over to GoldSeraphimon. "You're welcome…"

"Are you okay?" he asked his partner. GoldSeraphimon manages to get to his feet.

"Yeah, just took me by surprise,"

"And I'm sure that fall didn't help," Seraphimon added.

"You saw that and didn't help?" GoldSeraphimon asked annoyed.

"Well it was either help you or Hope. I'd knew you'd survive but Hope was in a rough spot. Alright, now that we're here this will be easy," Seraphimon said turning his attention to the mess of lava moving around at the top of Mount Fuji.

"I doubt it, Baromon seems to get his power from fire,"

"Yeah, and right now he's infused with fire given liquid form," Hope added.

"Well, I had this guy looked up before I got here. Way I see it, we can either separate him from the lava or destroy him while he's still bonded with it. I mean we could probably do either one between the two of us,"

"Separating him seems like more trouble than it's worth honestly. Lets just take him out,"

"Okay, lets do it," Seraphimon said unsheathing his single golden blade from his right arm.

"You only have one?" GoldSeraphimon asked unsheathing both of his swords.

"It'd be unfair if I had two, we'd be too awesome for our world to handle,"

"Whatever, just beat this guy already," Hope said.

"Right," GoldSeraphimon led the charge as Seraphimon followed. Both angel were rushing forward and suddenly a power was being shared between the two of them. Their blades began shining brighter then ever before.

"_**Golden Excalibur!"**_ they both exclaimed. All three blades slashed in different directions at the lava covered Baromon. Not only was it's connection with it's main source of power gone, but it started to fall to pieces as well. Seraphimon and GoldSeraphimon looked at each other in awe for a moment.

"That power again…" Hope muttered as both Seraphimon joined him. There was a glowing and both of them shrunk down. His Seraphimon became Patamon who flapped over to land on his shoulder, and the other separated into a young teenage boy and his Patamon on his head.

"What do you mean again?" TK asked.

"That power was what helped NoirSeraphimon and I beat Rhinomon. It's weird, it's like a rush of power comes over us and with it we can overwhelm anyone," Hope's Patamon explained. TK looked up in thought then turned toward Hope.

"Wow you guys are old, even your Patamon looks older, and bigger," TK said stepping forward to get a better look at the alternate version of himself. He looked him up and down seeing as he stood only to his shoulder. Hope was clearly growing annoyed.

"Stop acting like a child, this is serious!" Hope exclaimed.

"I know, but it never hurts to have some fun every now and then. Don't be so uptight,"

"Wow…is this what he was like?" Hope questioned out loud.

"What who was like?" TK asked.

"Nothing, just glad I'm not like you,"

"Hope…" Hope's Patamon moaned.

"Well it doesn't much matter," TK said with a nonchalant shrug. "We are who we are. We're the same in a lot of ways, just expressive of it in different ways,"

"What makes you think you know me TK?"

"That crest around your neck does," TK said pointing at the object around Hope's neck. "I see you got to keep yours after the battle with Apoclyamon,"

"Yes…that battle…had many conditions," Hope said turning around making TK face his back. TK tilts his head in confusion.

"So, what's your story?" TK asked placing his hands on his hips.

"My story?"

"Yeah, see Takeru is, well more like was a evil version of me, Tak is the future kid, and I'm like the humorous one,"

"More like annoying," Hope said as he began to walk away.

"Awe come on Hope, it can't hurt for us to know something about each other," TK said following him.

"Uh, guys maybe we should continue this somewhere else," Hope's Patamon said as the local authorities were about to arrive.

"Right, DigiArmor Energize," Hope said as his Patamon changed into Pegasusmon. This Pegasusmon was built much stronger then TK's and is bigger. "You should probably head home now," Hope said sitting on his Digimon.

"No ride?" Hope kicked Pegasusmon's sides to instruct him to take off into that air. "Guess not…" TK opened a portal back to his world.

"He seems nice," Patamon said which prompted TK to give him a look as he entered the portal.

"Yeah, as nice as standing in a harsh blizzard wearing shorts,"

* * *

_**A/N: **__Okay, the TK's have been introduced now. Now if you haven't noticed yet this will be shifting between each world for each chapter. Exploring more of how similar the TKs are and their key differences. I hope you've enjoyed so far. Please review by clicking the button down there._


	8. You're Not Alone

_**Digimon Universe part 8**_

"_**You're Not Alone"**_

"AH!" TK sighed as he finished drinking a big cup of fruit punch. "That was pretty good,"

"Yeah!" Patamon said wholeheartedly agreeing with his partner. Currently the two were at a diner in a suburban city somewhere, but it was not Odaiba. "Don't eat a lot of food like this back home,"

"Yeah, this country has some great eats," TK added.

"TK?" a voice from behind him called. TK tilts his head back to see a familiar brown haired girl.

"Hey Mimi," TK greeted warmly with a smile.

"What are you doing here?" Mimi asked swiftly as she moved to sit across from TK.

"Well there was a bit of a mess I had to clean up here," TK muttered with sigh.

"All the way in New York?"

"Yeah, and after the fight we were pretty tired between flying this far and so fast and the fight we we're spent. So we decided to get something here since Patamon isn't the only one who needed to recharge,"

"You had American money?" she asked.

"Left over from my last trip here," TK said but he noticed a look Mimi was giving him. "What?"

"Do you have your D-Terminal?" she asked with a hint annoyance. TK raised an eyebrow and reached into his pocket and showed her. "Check it," TK was still confused but it wasn't until he opened it did he see.

"50 messages!" TK exclaimed as he scrolled then the large amounts of unopened mail. He sighed not knowing where to begin with the task.

"Yes TK, you practically just up and left everyone not telling them a thing and you're all the way in NEW YORK CITY!" Mimi was rightfully upset.

"I knew you'd be around,"

"How would I know if you needed help?" she challenged. "Besides I left Palmon at home because she was feeling a little tired today,"

"Well if I was losing you'd know, besides it was only two SlashAngemon, I took care of one easily enough,"

"From what I understand you barely took out that one back in Japan," she responded. TK sighed at that and gave a nervous laugh.

"Okay it was tougher than what I'm used to but I managed,"

"What happens if you're not able to TK?" She asked seriously.

"We'll be fine," TK said standing up. "The time change is killer so we got to hurry back before jetlag really gets to me. See you around Mimi," TK said walking out the diner. TK and Patamon ventured down an alley as TK pulled out his Digivice with a sigh. Suddenly his ear piece began to ring.

"Another one?" Patamon groaned.

"No, someone's calling me, but it might be that all the same," TK said reaching into his pockets and placed it in his ear. "Alright who needs help?" TK asked with closed tired eyes.

"It's gonna be you soon," came the reply. TK was startled as he opened his eyes to see Izzy staring at him with the sternest look he's ever seen. "You do realize you missed another meeting,"

"Crap!" TK exclaimed. "I thought I forgot something, and now that crazy amount of messages makes sense,"

"Yeah, stop by my house,"

"Izzy I don't know if I'm up for-,"

"I highly suggest you stop by my house before you go home. This is information you need to hear and see," he said sternly. TK's never heard Izzy so deadly serious before, what was missing one meeting gonna make, but he supposed its best not to tick him off anymore then he has.

"Alright, ETA will be in 15 minutes,"

"15?"

"Our top flight speed isn't Imperialdramon's," TK responded as he hung up. TK looked to his partner who nods. TK activated the Sacred Digivolution then shot off high into the sky as Seraphimon. The angel went high into the clouds knowing that it would take longer to simply fly straight. He went up then prepared to go back down in a flash of golden light accompanied by a loud sonic boom. "This better be good," the angel muttered grumpily.

And low and behold fifteen minutes of flying later Seraphimon began to notice the island of Japan. Since he was not familiar with the geography enough to know where his home was from this point of view he decided to rely on his sensing abilities as he flew downward. He kept up a rapid decent until he quickly noticed Izzy's apartment building. He landed on the side of it then after a flash of gold TK and Patamon emerged from it. TK sighed as he saw it was midday here compared to it being late at night over in New York. He supposed a nap would put him back on schedule that is after his little meeting with Izzy. TK honestly wondered what the computer wiz kid would want with him, despite how long they've known each other TK never really interacted with him that much. TK never held it against him of course since he understood Izzy was still adjusting to people when they had met, so a little kid was practically beyond him. He gets along great with Cody which had stricken TK as odd, but he supposed Izzy really has come a long way, too bad things between them were stuck that way. TK didn't like that it was that way, but he didn't really know what to do about it so he left things as they are. By the time TK came to that conclusion he was in front of the Izumi residence. He knocked on the door loud enough to get attention, but not too hard to require a panic. Shortly, Mrs. Izumi answered the door with a smile.

"Oh, TK, Izzy said you would be stopping by really soon. I guess he wants to fill you in on what you missed,"

"Do you know anything about what he wants?" TK asked knowing she was familiar with Digital World happenings. It simply made things easier when parents were involved, his mom knew about his misadventures and seemed okay.

"I'm not sure, but he seems really grumpy might want to tread carefully," She advised while glancing at Izzy's door which was closed.

"Oh, once I hit him with the old TK charm he'll be high on life,"

"Ya know that never really worked on Izzy," Patamon muttered, but that claimed seem to fall on deaf ears.

"And tell your mom I said hello. She must be really strong if she's able to handle this situation," Mrs. Izumi said absentmindedly. TK raised an eyebrow at that comment. Why would his mom have to be strong about anything, he's doing all the fighting?

"Sure," TK said walking towards Izzy's door. TK knew he was expected so allowed himself in. As soon as he walked in it felt weird. Izzy didn't turn to him as he simply stared at his computer screen not even doing anything on it. Even Tentomon looked serious as he stood with arms crossed something very uncommon for the bug Digimon. "Alright I give up what are we playing?" TK asked after a moment went by and no words were said.

"Sit," Izzy said motioning to his bed. TK happily obliged as he closed the door then collapsed down on the bed.

"Whew, flying from one end of the world to other sounds fun but it's kinda exhausting," TK said.

"Would've been better if you had Imperialdramon with you," Izzy stated.

"Well yeah maybe, but then I would've had to track down Davis and Ken and they'd have to drop what they're doing too,"

"Davis and Ken were together, you'd know what we set up if you came to the meeting before this one. We paired up and everyone got days when their Digimon would be with them. We created a schedule so someone would always be available to help you,"

TK blinked surprised. "I didn't know that…."

"Well I guess we're even since you were all the way in New York and no one had any idea," Izzy said. TK raised an eyebrow.

"How'd you know where I-,"

"That's the point you didn't tell anyone TK," Izzy said finally turning to face the blond. "Do you realize how panicked we were. You didn't show up at a meeting that was at your own house!"

"Sounds awful when you say it…." TK muttered.

"That's because it is. We didn't know where you were or what happened to you. For all we knew you could've been dying somewhere and we'd have no idea where to start looking,"

"Ya know this ear thingie has a tracker in it,"

"Not the point!"

"I was in a hurry. I knew that it was pretty far away, and I just rushed off before anyone could get hurt. Plus the American Digidestined might've helped, and I knew Mimi would be in the area,"

"Palmon was feeling tired possibly because she's been in the real world too long," Izzy said completely countering TK's statement. TK was growing more and more curious of how Izzy knew so much. "Look at this," Izzy said motioning for TK to come over. TK stood up then went to the computer. "Between the other four me's we were able to figure out how to get images from other worlds to see just what this Chronomon was capable of. Only being able to hack into worlds with technology using cameras, digital recording devices, and phone signals using that earpiece that Hakeru gave you as a reference point," Izzy explained as he clicked one button and an image showed up. It looked like the image was taken from a security camera. TK's eyes widened, he saw what appeared to be a child version of himself in a hospital bed, gravely injured from the looks of him and barely alive. Another image showed another version of himself this time an adult with his partner MagnaAngemon in mid battle and it looked like they were losing….badly. Another image revealed another version of himself, this time his age, being….TK reeled back a bit seeing it. He was being…..absorbed into the body of an MagnaAngemon as it's blade impaled an Angemon with a trail of destruction in the background. Another image of him actually bleeding out due to a onlookers camera phone. TK literally was witnessing the death of different TK's from all over the cosmos.

"Holy crap…." TK gasped.

"This is serious TK, and you need to take it serious," Izzy said gravely.

"B-but you missed something. In all those images all those other me's didn't have a Seraphimon with them. They didn't have other me's as backup either, and the four of us are the most powerful TK's so far. I can't lose to those guys,"

"How long do you think it'll be before Chronomon can create his own Seraphimon?" Izzy challenged which made TK freeze. "Do you think he won't eventually make one himself, maybe five or so and send them at you? You barely survived that battle with Takeru, think you can take on five of him?"

"I can handle myself!" TK exclaimed at Izzy but the computer geek didn't even flinch the only thing that moved were his eyes which narrowed dangerously. This made TK readjust his tone. "I've fought Chronomon enough to know that he is a monster. He'll destroy any and everything. He knows he can't beat the four of us with this tactic. Yet his full concentration is on us, so if that was the case he could've wiped us out in a second. He wants something, but all he's doing is make us stronger with ever battle,"

"So, from what you're saying…he has something planned for you four. You plan on fighting him until…what?"

"Until I-I mean we make some kind of discovery to what he's planning. I do all the frontline stuff freeing you guys up to research, and I'll help with that too with the battles I fight,"

"But TK, you have to admit they are getting stronger," Patamon added.

"As I said, so are we. We're an entire army of Digidestined, plus with the negative energy he charges these angel Digimon with it's like fighting a virus type making our attacks even more effective. You've noticed that right?"

"Well yeah," Patamon nods.

Izzy sighed as he rubbed his head. "I knew it…" he muttered.

"What, you knew what?" TK asked. Izzy seemed surprise that TK heard him and decided to angrily ignore him. "Listen I may not be Matt, but we're still related. It takes me a minute but I can explode like him too,"

"Go ahead and tell them Izzy, maybe it might help," Tentomon stated making his presence known for the first time. Izzy seemed hesitant but eventually relented.

"TK, out of all the Digidestined, everyone, who do you think is the most powerful?" Izzy asked. TK took this as an odd question but required no thought to figure it out.

"It's between Kari and me," TK said. He admits his power was pretty amazing, but he knew Kari was not one to cross either.

"Right, but before Kari every joined us you were the most powerful ally we had," Izzy started.

"Yeah, I kinda figured that out myself after we beat Devimon," TK said the name with great distaste.

"As did everyone else TK," Izzy said which surprised TK. TK never knew the others thought of him this way, he'd assumed they just thought they got lucky. "After the battle with Devimon, Matt, Tai, and myself wanted to know more about Angemon, when everyone was asleep we found Leomon. He explained to us that Angemon was a holy Digimon, and in the battle against the darkness Angemon was the best and most powerful answer to winning,"

"Okay….but why are you telling us this now?" TK asked.

"When Tokomon returned we all really thought about telling you, but….you both weren't ready to know that,"

"To know what?" Patamon asked.

"You were the strongest of us," Tentomon stated. "Surely you noticed. Each time Angemon joined in the battle our chances of victory seemed to skyrocket!"

"Then…if that was the case why'd you pull us back so much?" TK asked. He knew that as far as frontlines go, he was never the first choice, always the last one.

"You didn't like fighting TK, remember?" Patamon said.

"I got over that," TK said sternly but quickly shook his head. "No wrong choice of words, I saw past that and realized it was necessary,"

"We held you back because TK, you were just a little kid, you couldn't be on the front lines least of all taking point in every battle," Izzy continued.

"We were and still are your biggest gun!" TK exclaimed. "Angemon would've taken Etemon apart, and if Myotismon wasn't such a chicken Angemon and WereGarurmon could've done some serious damage that night he found us. And we all saw how desperate Myotismon got when Angemon digivolved to join in the battle when Gatomon digivolved,"

"That was only the second time I digivolved TK, I still wasn't used to it," Patamon reminded addressing the battle with he and WereGarurumon had. "The others still had a lot more experience than I did too,"

"Oh right, I forgot that…."

"Which is my point exactly," Izzy said. "You didn't know you were our biggest gun, but you were. When all else failed you succeeded. From the very beginning with Devimon, to the end with Piedmon you were who we relied one when we didn't make the cut. And if we had told you that, one that would've been way too much pressure on you to handle, and two you would probably be acting like how you're acting now, maybe even worse given the age difference. Thinking with your might,"

"How so?"

"TK you're acting like a lone ranger. You're going in fights severely outnumbered and half gunned, but the fact that you're the most powerful should make everything alright? That doesn't and it would've gotten you killed then, and it might get you killed now unless you snap out of it,"

"It's nothing I can't handle," TK said with shrug.

Izzy seemed run his fingers through his hair in frustration as his words seemed to fall on deaf ears. "What is wrong with you?"

"Me?" TK exclaimed finally getting annoyed himself.

"We're your friends TK, all of us care,"

"Then why let me think I was a burden," TK eyes narrowed dangerously and this made Izzy shrink back. "Oh, that little detail slipped your brilliant mind huh. I felt like a burden, and I felt like I was never good enough always trying to play catch up. Patamon felt the same way, I remember when he broke out in tears because he couldn't digivolve to champion yet while everyone else could. I knew he was strong, but he didn't feel that way and he didn't have a lot of confidence in protecting anyone. He hated sitting on the sidelines I saw it in eyes," TK said placing hand on Patamon who seemed to avert his gaze away from everyone. "I think that's what made Takeru turn, and what made me darn near close to doing the same thing," Eyes widened at his words. No one ever heard TK admit that he himself would become like Takeru. He admitted they were similar but never let on that he would become like him.

"TK…" Izzy muttered at a lost to what to say next.

"I almost thought you guys didn't like me, or at least thought of me as an annoyance,"

"Now that's not fair," Tentomon said floating up into TK's face. "No one ever said anything to make you feel bad and we all knew you were just kid. But you're not a kid anymore TK and we don't have to sugar coat it anymore. You've let this power go straight to your head, and you're disregarding us totally. We're sorry, but Izzy was out voted so we couldn't tell you the truth back then. I realize that you want to do what you missed out on so long being the only one strong enough to fight this without any help. But none of us did that, so you can't either!" Tentomon exclaimed buzzing around.

"Wow….never knew Tentomon could give a speech…." Patamon gasped.

"He's been reading my public speaking books," Izzy admitted.

"Alright, I get it," TK said sighing. "I've been selfish and thoughtless simply because I could. I just know what Chronomon is capable of. He's not trying to kill me, you guys, that's probably a different story. I can't gamble with that,"

"I figured, you really think I don't get you don't you?" Izzy said with a raised eyebrow.

TK shrugged. "You never seemed like you did,"

"Just took me longer with you is all," Izzy admitted. "But I do care TK, like everyone else,"

TK would be lying if he said he didn't feel touched by those words. "Well looks like we both misjudged each other,"

"That's understandable given our two crests, Hope and Knowledge. Don't really go together and honestly I never really fully understood Hope since it seems like a very complex and debatably emotion. So I suppose if I couldn't understand that I couldn't understand you, and I'm sure you know how I don't like not knowing something,"

"Understatement, so what else do I need to know?"

"The others are going to pound in what I just said in a less then friendlier way back at your house,"

"This was friendly?" TK questioned. Izzy blew off that statement to continue.

"As I told the others Chronomon was once unstable as I'm sure you noticed. However, we've discovered that somehow Chronomon has a psychic link with every TK in the universe. Through the research mostly in part to Knowledge and Iz because of their access to more sophisticated equipment. This link allows him to channel large amounts of power from all over the universe grabbing it from different dimensions and processing large amounts of information. In lamest terms, he's force feeding himself information, most likely from other TKs. He's also mastering his powers more and more being able to create stronger Digimon, and greater numbers as I'm sure you noticed with that Mothmon invasion. Using technology from 2099 we plan on sending a probe to observe Chronomon through a portal hopefully that'll give us a look at what's happening. But as it stands TK, we're losing,"

"Chronomon is full himself too. He's absolutely sure that things will work out in his favor. Haven't gotten word from Hakeru at all like he vanished from existence, and the four of us just keep fighting fight after fight. I know we're only playing into his hand, but I don't know any other play we have. I'll try speaking with him next creature he sends,"

"What, how?"

"When I went to back up Hope I overheard some of the conversation he had with Chronomon. Still sounds so creepy how he has my voice, but also he's not at all shy in sharing bits and pieces of what he's planning. He wants us to find out, I know he does,"

"I suppose you can try that, and remember to bring back up," Izzy pressed that last part sternly which he got a 'yeah, yeah' response.

"I'll make sure he does," Patamon spoke up.

"Alright then, I'd better get to that surprise party at my house that's surely waiting for me," TK said standing.

"Oh one last thing," Izzy said as TK turned toward him for Izzy to flash a piece of paper in his face. "The Digidestined who will available for you on which days they are free and times, please use it,"

"Got it," TK said taking the paper.

"Be careful as well Chronomon is planning on making his big move soon, so be ready," Izzy said placing a hand on TK's shoulder which TK nods with a smirk.

"Got it, later Izzy, bye Tentomon,"

"Don't be crazy!" Tentomon called.

"Who, us?" TK glanced at Patamon and his partner at him in mock shock. "Never," he said opening the door. "Oh, and tell Mimi I said hi again since I'm sure you've been talking to her all day huh?"

Izzy face flushed deep red. "GET OUT!" TK quickly rushed out the door barely avoiding a shoe.

* * *

After a nice good laugh about the expression on Izzy's face TK walked toward his house. He knew what was going to happen and knew what these people were capable of if left unchecked. He couldn't run, he'd have to face them head on. He wasn't sure if he was up for the challenge but he knew he'd have to be. The elevator opened up to his floor and he took deliberately slow steps toward his apartment. It was so slow Patamon felt like he could fly to the moon and back and TK wouldn't have even touched the door knob. TK reached for the door knowing it would be unlocked then gulped. He turned the knob then gently pushed the door open.

"Maybe they'll be in such a tirade of how they're gonna tear me apart they won't notice me…" TK muttered as he scooted into the room silently. However as he turned to silently shut the door he turned back around to meet the glare of the Child of Light. Her eyes seemed to be consumed with such an anger he'd never seen before, he'd swear she had a dark ring on her.

"Living room. Chair. Sit," she said simply pointing behind her. TK cautiously stepped forward since he figured the TK charm was not going to be working on anyone today.

"I'm not going into this open area unless I'm promised no objects of any kind will go flying in the air towards me," TK's Digimon side was sensing large of amounts of aggravation, and slight disappointment at his statement. To prove his sense correct it sounded like numerous objects were being sat down.

"Alright, we're unarmed…" came a glum response from Tai. Kari walked past him scouting the area then turned back to TK still with the same glare but motioned it was clear. TK snuck one eye out just in case of fowl play given Kari's mood at the moment. In the room were Davis, Ken, Yolei, Cody, Tai, Matt, and Sora. He supposed Joe was too busy for this little roast, but that quickly deflated when he came from around the corner seemingly dusting his hands.

"Oh yay…everyone's here…." TK glumly stated as the words held fake enthusiasm. Patamon felt uncomfortable feeling like the stares were on him too, so he floated off for cover. However, the Digimon in the room glared him down to making him flinch back hoping to look somewhere else. TK decided to come out fully and head toward the seat Kari directed him too, no one making a sound or saying a word just staring him down. "Now before we start Izzy already laid it in to me pretty good given his rep. Alright….let me have it…"

TK regretted those words as everyone began yelling and screaming and pointing at him all at once. TK winced back as if the verbal assault was tearing him apart and beating him down. The words came so fast and so loud and all at once it was hard for any kind of message to get through. Izzy was right, this is less friendly! At least he got a word in with the redhead.

"…Irresponsible!"

"….Worried sick!"

"….Show off!"

"…Self Control!"

"Arrogant!"

"Idiot!"

"Childish!"

"HEY NOT ALL AT ONCE!" TK finally screamed as he waved his hands out trying to make the screaming stop. When they backed off TK finally relaxed somewhat.

"Who is the leader of the Digidestined?" Tai growled between clenched teeth as he got in TK's face.

"Um…y-you," TK said feeling like a child as he points at Tai.

"And what are you?"

"A…jerk?"

"Yes, but what I'm looking for is a Digidestined, right?"

"Y-yeah, I'm a Digidestined,"

"So who is your leader?"

"…You…"

"Alright, just making sure I remember this right, cause with the way you've been acting I swear you were your own team! Honestly TK you haven't been a team player and it ends today,"

"Okay…" TK said looking away.

"It's bad enough TK that you have Mom worried sick, but when she calls me and asks where you are and I have no idea how do you think she feels?" Matt questioned terrified. TK opened his mouth to answer but Matt cut in. "Terrified! That's how she feels and how I feel too. She understands you're the only person who can do this, but at least think of how she feels. It's bad enough we're fighting this crazy powerful Digimon, but you're making it worse by trying to be a solo artist!" TK now understood Mrs. Izumi's meaning by a strong mom. He had not thought about the stress it put on his mother knowing that her son could go rushing off into battle and not come back.

"No one person can be his own team TK, and no matter how powerful you are you'll still need us. It just really hurts that you blow us off like this, and think nothing of it. Even if you don't needs us we'd feel better knowing someone is with you if things to go south or something unexpected happens. Especially when these battles can take place anywhere in this world or in Digi World," Sora was notable much calmer after her initial shouting.

"I'd think you'd rely on us a lot more than this TK," Joe said with folded arms sounding quite disappointed and confused. "I mean this is really out of character for you," TK unknowingly admitted how true that was and thought Joe did bring an interesting point but now wasn't the time to bring it up. TK opened his mouth to speak but Joe raised his hand. "Nuh uh, nope, no words mister, because as much as I hate to admit it I'm very susceptible to that little TK charm of yours, and so it mostly everyone here,"

"Some more the others…." Gatomon muttered with a glance at Kari but the cat Digimon went unheard.

"Huh, so I guess Izzy really is the only one immune…" TK muttered to himself.

"Alright, I can't exactly pull the leader card since Tai already took that," Davis admitted with crossed arms. TK placed his chin in his hand as he gazed at Davis preparing himself for the things he was about to say. "BUT STOP BEING SUCH A SHOW OFF! Ok, you can reach mega on your own, and so what if it's more powerful than Imperialdramon. I think it's pretty self-centered of you to think you can handle it all. Even I'm not that thick headed," TK was in utter shock that he felt like his eyes would fall out his skull. DAVIS managed to make sense, and even gave him a major guilt trip. If he just felt bad before, but now he felt like utter crap. The others noticed this down casted look from TK and Davis quickly got offended. "Hey you don't gotta be put down that much!"

"Honestly TK, this is just one big slap on the wrist trying to get you to see that your treading some dangerous ground. We just want to be there to ya know pull you out if you sink. The Digimon don't like Patamon charging in to battle like this anymore than we do either," Ken illustrated this point by turning attention to Biyomon who was strongly scolding Patamon. "Just let us help,"

"Yeah, teamwork, ya know that thing you do with other people?" Yolei question incredulously. "Try it once in a while,"

"Yolei that's not fair," Cody quickly defended. TK sighed happy that maybe Cody won't chew him out as bad as everyone else today. Cody understood him pretty well and despite being mentored by Joe and Izzy TK saw some of himself there too. "He was forced to work with you and I the first time he was attacked because we all lived here," Cody said as he turned a sharp glare at TK which made the blonde almost hop out his seat. Well there goes his first thought this might be the worst one yet. "We're DNA Digivolving partners TK. Aramadillamon can't reach ultimate without you, and I know you can reach mega all on your own so I'd just be holding you back," TK didn't like his word usage, even it was logically correct it didn't sit well with him. "But I'm willing to help in anyway I can, and I worry a lot about what's going on TK. I've heard a lot of stories about you and that other world, the one where you went bad and conquered everything. I know you have that kind of power but still….I don't want you to get hurt because of your overconfidence. I want to help anyway I can, but you won't even give me that chance! I'm sure Izzy showed you those pictures TK. I don't want you to end up like them…hurt…or worse,"

TK never thought about the shock value it might have on his friends. It scared him a little, so it must've been tripled for them and especially with them not knowing where he was. "Ah…man…"

"Now you know," Kari stated walking over with her arms crossed. She reached down to pull TK to his feet and wrapped her arms around his neck hugging him tightly. "We want to help, so please….let us,"

"I'm sorry…" he said. "I never thought about how you guys felt, just got caught up in it all," TK said glancing at Patamon who looked to be feeling the same way.

"Well we freak out like that, since none of us have ever rushed off into a fight all by themselves," Tai said. TK thought on this and realized that this was a very true statement.

"And don't forget you still got mom to deal with," Matt added.

"Chewed out three times in one day!" TK exclaimed as he finally broke his embrace with Kari which everyone noted lasted quite a while. "Please…no more…" Suddenly a beeping sound came from his pocket. TK smiled. "Chronomon my friend you have impeccable timing," TK said as he reached into his pocket then put the ear piece in his ear. "Got a hit in the real world again, and the winner is….Australia! Ugh, I wanted Italy…oh well Patamon-," TK cut himself off as he felt like the fiery stares of a thousand suns were glaring into the back of his head. He didn't bother to turn and see if the feeling was correct. "H-Hand me the s-schedule please…"

"Good call," Patamon said picking up the piece of paper and handing it over to TK. TK read it over for a moment.

"Alright, who's ready to go to Australia?!" TK exclaimed.


	9. Priorities

_**Digimon Universe part 9**_

"_**Priorities,"**_

Tak curiously observed the device Iz was currently working on. Tak made sure he stood on the other side of the work table across from Iz to see what he was making but also stay out of the way. Patamon floats next to his head observing as well. Tak's brother had made him promise to not interfere with it while everyone was currently away on other assignments. It appeared to be a spherical device with four antennas poking out at different parts of the device. It has a glass lens that made it appear like a camera. Iz currently had Tentomon like eye goggled over his eyes with layers of data giving him suggestions on what to do next and applying it. With his armor's innate electrical properties he was able to make the adjustments needed the micro matrix, or whatever it was that Iz was sputtering on to himself about. Iz turned around then waved his hand for a 3-D model to appear before his hand, and he looked it over with particular eyes going over each and every detail. While Iz was distracted with that hologram Tak reached out a hand to pull the device closer so he could get a better look at the device.

"Please don't touch it yet," Iz said without turning around. Tak looked at Iz to wonder how he knew when his hand was hover right over it. Tak blushed and retracted his hand. Iz stared at the model for a good few minutes and then turned back around to make some last minute adjustments. "Gotta make sure the quark enhancers and the tachyon relays are hooked up properly," Iz touched the device in a few places again with electricity running through his fingers. After that he sighed with relief as he removed his tentomon eye goggles from his eyes he then looked at Tak. "Alright, now you can touch it,"

Like an excited child with a new toy Tak quickly scooped it up into his hands. "This seems really low tech for you," Tak said feeling the around the sphere object. It was heavier then it looked and clearly looked like an outdated piece of tech considering what he's used to.

"I had to salvage a lot of outdated and old scrap to meet the blueprints the other mes' and I constructed. We're short on time, so I didn't want to waste anymore searching for comparable parts,"

"I guess that's why it only took you thirty minutes to finish this. What's it supposed to do again?"

Iz held out his hand so Tak sat the device in Iz's open palm. "In words you can understand, it is a transmitter. It is supposed to monitor Chronomon's activity and measure just how powerful he is becoming. With this we can study it more thoroughly and come up with a plan of attack. The information will be fed to the four worlds currently putting up a fight,"

"Neat…" Tak said looking at the object.

"Now if you don't mind my asking, what do you need us to do Iz?" Patamon asked. Iz placed the device back into Tak's hands.

"Well firstly don't break it, it would be quite difficult to find new parts for it," Tentomon said.

"And we need you to throw it into the next portal you encounter. We don't wanna risk opening one ourselves,"

"Can't a MagnaAngemon just open a portal to this zone, because last I checked I thought that's where Chronomon was?" Tak asked.

"Well it all matters on what happens next. The other TK's are either busy, or on bed rest. So if one opens here that'll be the one we use or until they get a chance to,"

"Okay…" Tak said looking the device over curiously. He wished he could go ultimate already it was a serious down side for him. Unfortunately those thoughts had to take a backseat as of late. He's been feeling rather conflicted within himself, and he's ashamed to say more than usual.

"Tak?" Patamon questioned his quiet nature all of sudden. Tak pulled himself from his thoughts to look at his holographic friend. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah…why wouldn't I be?"

"I just feel like something has been bothering you lately,"

"Well…I guess you can say that," Tak said sitting the device down on the table again. He stared at it for a moment as he took his hat off. On the forehead inside the jewel piece, a symbol was blazed there. The symbol of Hope as the ray of sunlight shines down below. "The Crest of Hope…maybe it's not for me…"

"What are you talking about?" Patamon questioned bewildered. "Of course it's for you, you were chosen for it,"

"I'm not sure…I don't like fighting…I think because of that I can't bring out our true power. Maybe…if I tried a different approach…"

"I'd suggest against it Tak," came Iz's voice from across the room. Tak turned to see Iz was, not surprisingly, at his computer but still somehow listening. "Remember when Tye tried to force the power out. He lost control of himself and it brought out this dark side of him. I'm glad Kairi wasn't around to see him like that, but we all should learn from that,"

Tak took the words in as he turned his attention back to his crest. "It feels wrong though…I mean for you Knowledge is like second nature Iz. There isn't any doubt you're the smartest guy on the team, maybe even smartest guy we know. And for like just about everyone their crest fits them perfectly so it didn't take them long to access their power. I mean Kar was able to use her crest as soon as she downloaded it!"

"Well…that is true…" Iz said as he stopped typing on the computer to put on a thoughtful look. He looked over his shoulder to see Tak with a very discontent look on his face as he stared at his crest. No one ever thought twice about who each crest went too. Everyone thought it was a perfect fit for whoever they ended up with, including the crest of hope fitting Tak. "Well you aren't the first to feel that way Tak. Sora thought the exact same thing too and-,"

"She was being shocken ridiculous," Tak cut Iz off sharply surprising the older boy with the sharp tone he suddenly took. "I mean Love is a part of who she is. We all knew that and she did too. She just let her mind get twisted by that liar Demidevimon and his bratty partner,"

"So what makes your case different?" Tentomon asked.

"I don't need anyone to tell me that…" Tak stopped himself as his eyes narrowed after a moment. Iz looked at him to see his eyes conveyed an emotion of great distaste and a bit of confusion. Iz really didn't know what to say to Tak and began wondering when Matty would be around. "I'm wasting my time trying to explain this to you, or even think like this…" Tak groaned as he simply sat his hat back on his head. After that he picked up the device again then placed it in the bag on his back then he walked toward the exit to the lab with a sour look on his face.

"Tak come on, your crest is a part of you too it's just a little more complicated is all. Even I haven't really figured it out yet. Besides, your still a kid and-,"

"It must be nice Iz to draw strength from yourself…like it being a part of who you are…" Tak said as he departed from the lab. Iz looked after Tak in wonderment.

"Where did all this come from all of a sudden?" Tentomon wondered.

"I can't say honestly. He's bummed that his crest program hasn't fully integrated into his system, that much I knew, but it sounds a lot more serious," Iz said with a hand on his chin.

"Maybe we should investigate!" Tentomon exclaimed.

"Tento I don't think-,"

"It's a bad idea? I'm glad you agree lets fly!" Tentomon exclaimed bringing the wings on Iz's back to life. Iz called out in surprise as he was unwittingly flying through the lab and out the door after Tak. Since Tentomon was being so persistent Iz decided he'd go along with the plan as long as he was the one flying. In rookie mode Tak would be least likely to pick up on them, but they had to keep their distance. The buzzing of Iz's wings could give them away. After a little flying around Iz spotted Tak talking with Kar. He balances on a floating advertisement sign then extends insect antennas from his helmet on his head to focus in on what they're saying.

"…so bad Tak," Kar finished with Iz catching onto the end of her sentence.

"You of all people in this world should get where I'm coming from Kairi, you gotta!"

"I do Tak, but you have to understand and see past it. You can't let it consume you…I know it's hard and scary…but you can do it," She said with some hope in her voice as she placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Kar…you were able to see past that as soon as you got the program and got it work for you right away!"

"That was a fluke in all honesty…" Gatomon stated.

"A fluke that made you push past whatever doubts you had. You were already really powerful, you're naturally special, gifted, full of kindness, amazing and-," Tak cut himself upon realizing that he was rambling which made him blush. Kar smiled at him.

Iz listened but couldn't quite grasp what they were talking about specifically. "What is it that Kar understands that no one else on the team would?" Iz asked his curiosity growing.

"We'd like to know that too," came a familiar voice. Iz turned his head to see Tye and Matt next to him on the sign. Iz shouted out in surprise which prompted both boys to grab him and pull him down onto a rooftop close by. The scream was interrupted but did garner the two children's attention as they glanced up confused with the noise. "Geez Iz, chill out!" Tye hissed.

"What are you guys doing?" Iz demanded after he removed their hands from his mouth.

"Spying on Tak and Kar, what else?" Matty said as if that was so obvious.

"But why?"

"Make sure there's no foul play…" Tye said with narrowed eyes.

"That's his reason, I'm here to make sure he doesn't get in over his head," Matty said. "But what are you doing here?"

"Yeah Iz, you couldn't care less about stuff like this, and you're not the spying type?" Tye added with a raised eyebrow. Iz was curious with how well Tye could move about the rooftops in champion mode, but disregarded that for the moment to respond.

"Tak seemed greatly troubled when he left my lab. Tentomon thought it a good idea to follow and figure out why,"

"Troubled how?" Matty asked.

"He seemed downright depressed about something. He says the Crest of Hope shouldn't be his and that it doesn't fit him," Tentomon explained.

"And now listening in on Tak and Kar's conversation-,"

"Whoa, how were you able to hear them, we couldn't hear squat from where we were?" Tye asked.

"I could hear bits and pieces. It sounded like Tak was upset about something," Matty admitted.

"My antennae," Iz said pointing to them on his head. "I modified them to be able to filter out sound and focus in on faraway locations. I had actually got the theory-,"

"Okay that's crash, but what were they saying?" Tye interrupted earning a slight glare from Iz.

"Well, Tak seemed to be trying to get advice from Kar for some reason because she can understand something about him that no one else can. I couldn't figure out what from the conversation I had with him myself. I mentioned he should talk to Sor but he didn't seem into that idea. Something is really bothering him,"

Tye and Matty seemed taken aback. If someone like Iz who was so out of touch with peoples' feelings could tell Tak was upset then it must be serious. "Maybe we should try talking with him," Matty suggested.

"Or maybe you guys should try being better at spying," came a voice behind them. They turned sharply to see Tak and Kar both glaring at all present. "I can't shocken believe you!"

"Tak come on we were-," Tye began.

"Spying, yeah, we gathered and were trying to ignore it for the past ten minutes," Kar interrupted rubbing her forehead.

"You knew?"

"I could hear a pin drop a mile away during rush hour, what do you think?" Kar asked with folded arms.

"Plus you aren't known for your mobility in champion form. I could hear every grunt you made," Gatomon chuckled.

"I told you!" Matty proclaimed.

"My bad…" Greymon muttered.

"Guys!" Tak said demanding attention. "Shock…I really don't need this right now. Look I just wanted to talk Kar without you guys. But seeing as I can't even get that I'll just be mode then!" And at that Tak turned to fly away shifting into champion mode.

"Um Iz you think you could catch him and get him to calm down?" Matty asked with a groan.

"Wouldn't it be better if you did?" Iz asked.

"I could try but even in mega I can't keep up with Tak's flight skills. You're the only one here qualified,"

"Well that's surprising insight given your reputation,"

"Just go, we'll catch up,"

Iz smirked as he shifted into champion mode too and shot off after Tak. Using Tak's slipstream and the air currents Iz skillfully caught up with Tak in a few moments. Even with the helmet over his eyes Iz could see the annoyed look he was being given. Tak attempts to fly off to lose Iz but Iz follows closely which only seemed to annoy Tak more. Tak dived into heavy on going traffic down below them. The flying cars whizzed by at speeds far faster than anyone could catch with the naked eye. However, these two were flying in between them going against traffic even. Tak was having little trouble it seemed partly because he was a daredevil at times and liked doing things like this to as he would say 'feel the mode'. However since Iz is a much more sane Digidestined he had a lot of trouble avoiding the pun of being a bug on a windshield. If he pulled out he'd lose Tak for sure. Iz then got serious as the Kabuterimon mask came down over his eyes. His wings increased their buzzing speed as he sped off with the mask creating equations at speeds most human brains would need paper and pencil to start on Iz was solving all at once. These equations allowed him to maneuver through the best pathways to get to his goal as if he was moving like a real insect. Tak was only able to glance back as Iz was upon him and grabbed the boy and pulled him out of the heavy traffic. Tak slapped Iz's hands away and was about to fly off again when he decided to about face to look at Iz who was grateful he stopped.

"What do you want?" Tak asked. Iz was a bit taken aback with his demeanor.

"I want to know what's going on with you Tak. Why this sudden attitude change, why are you so unhappy all of sudden?"

"What makes you think I just started feeling this way?" Tak questioned as he hugged himself but then he sighed. "Like I said in the lab Iz, it would be a waste to explain to you," Tak turned to fly away.

Iz never took a liking to being blown off as this time he cut off Tak's flight path. "Try me,"

Tak looked up at Iz who didn't back down as he removed his mask to reveal his stern face. Upon seeing the seriousness in Iz's eyes Tak seemed to simmer down as he too removed his mask, and he floats down to a rooftop with Iz close behind. "I…struggle… I mean…I had talked to…" Tak looked at Iz with saddened visage. "Can you promise you won't tell anyone Iz?"

"Tak the others, especially Matty, deserve to know what's wrong if there's a problem I can't just-,"

"Please Iz," Tak pleaded.

Iz sighed knowing Matty would pound him for information later, but he supposed he could prepare himself for that, "Alright, I promise,"

"Really Iz?" Tak questioned stepping forward to hover closer to Iz's standing height.

Iz placed both hands on Tak's shoulders then brought him back down. "I promise Tak, now tell me what's wrong,"

"Well…I've been talking to Chronomon…"

"Well that's not hard to believe Tak. He has been sending Digimon here who can talk and the other us' have reported the same thing,"

"Yeah…but…he's in my head…"

"What?" Iz said alarmed as he took a step back.

"Yeah, he's been talking to me in my mind for the past week now,"

"This is serious Tak, we need to get you checked out or maybe-,"

"Iz you promised,"

At the reminder of his words Iz calmed a bit but still on edge. "What has he been saying?"

"That everything is coming together. That everything will be alright. He's… also been saying some things that's starting to make me think and it's hard to ignore it,"

"What things?"

"I'm…only lying to myself. Iz, haven't you ever questioned how powerful Kar and I are? How different our crest is from everybody else's?"

"They are different…but I always speculated that was coincidental with the fact you two were the youngest,"

"Well that's partly the reason…" Tak looked down. "He said…we were the easiest to mold,"

"What does he mean by that?"

"I'm not sure…but he makes it sound like having the Crest of Hope is a burden. I'm starting to believe him,"

"Tak, I know it's hard right now. With your crest not glowing it must be a little frustrating, and on top of this crazy super dimensional Digimon gunning after you. If this bothers you so much then you should talk to the others about it,"

"I thought about it but…none of you would understand…Kairi is the best person who would. Chronomon said she would be a waste to talk to because she is easily manipulated and she's too pure,"

"What would she understand Tak, what is it your trying to say?"

"…What if I'm only able to be what my crest wants me to be, not what I represent?"

"Tak I-," Iz was cut off by an alarm that went off on his Digivice. He noticed Tak had the same alert too which meant a Dimensional portal was opening up. It seemed rather close by as well. Tak sighed as he turned to go confront the danger deeming the conversation over, but not feeling an ounce of relief from it. Iz stopped him as he turned him around to look him straight in the eyes. "Listen, I know I'm no expert and your probably right stuff like this is wasted on me. However, I do know that you can't let yourself be told what you can and can't be. You are who you are Tak and you can't change that, no one can," Tak seemed shocked at the emotion Iz's words carried it was so unlike him. Tak smiled up at him.

"Thank you Izzy," he said and then wrapped his arms around Iz for a tight hug. Iz was a bit surprised but returned the gesture.

"No problem, but I still think you should at the very least talk with Sara,"

"…Okay I will," Tak released him then turned back to fly off. Iz looked to see that the others finally caught up with them. He gestured them to follow as he took off after Tak.

"Geez you guys are fast, it took us forever to catch up," Tye whined in his Wargreymon mode. The dramon killers were retracted at the moment as his armor was like a high tech version of the original Wargreymon armor. The armor is a red color instead of golden and the crest of Courage shined proudly on his back in golden color. His head is between Wargreymon's mouth like it's a helmet currently open to reveal his face and inner layer of black armor.

"We seriously need to get the hang of this flying thing," Matty agreed in MetalGarurumon mode. He was simply a bipedal version MetalGarurumon. His helmet was like Tye's in the fact it was MetalGarurumon's head with Matty's head is inside MetalGarurumon's mouth. Claws on his hands with Garurumon fur on the back of his hands, thick chrome digizoid metal armor, and an array of compartments on his body no doubt holding a barrage of weapons.

"Tak makes this look so easy," Kar added. In her Angewomon form she paled a very similar appearance to Tak except she has no backpack, and instead of white lines on her armor its pink. Her armor is skin tight, with white patches on the armor, a pink scarf, and the white shining wings out the back of her armor. "It's hard to fly in the right direction with all these wings,"

"I believe the key Tak uses is riding on the wind instead trying to fight against it," Iz suggested.

"And what's your secret?"

"My wings are like an insect's. The faster I beat them, the faster I go, and plus a lot of insects are innate fliers. Take the Nirvana Beetle it has-,"

"Okay that's crash, but let's catch up with Tak before we lose him," Tye said as he sloppily flew ahead. Matty and Kar agreed as they also sloppily sped up. Iz huffed as he simply decided to rush on ahead past them and catch up with Tak first.

"Well I usually call you to tell me what we're up against," Tak said.

"Well according to these readings…there's only one…but it seems pretty strong. Should probably be careful," Kabuterimon warned. It was a moment later they all noticed a swirling vortex beneath them on the top of a building. Standing in front of that portal was…a MagnaAngemon.

"A MagnaAngemon…just one…and it looks exactly like TK's version of him too," Tak said as he touched down in front of the angel. He was surprised to see the angel simply standing there instead of causing havoc like the other Digimon who appear do.

"Glad you came. I was hoping that the other Digidestined weren't going to continue fighting your battles for you," MagnaAngemon stated in an adult TK voice.

Before Tak could answer the angel two ultimates and two megas landed in front of him taking battle positions. Iz must have Level Shifted. "Tak get the device in that portal and close it while we deal with this guy," Iz instructed. Iz knew that Tak would probably feel sidelined especially after Chronomon basically outright challenged him. However, in Tak's current state of mind and the clear level advantage the boy lacked he would not do well in this fight.

"But -,"

"I have to agree with Iz here Tak. Once you get that portal close you can help us wrap up whatever will be left of this guy," Tye said rushing forward bringing forth his Dramon Killers.

"Unfortunately, that's not how this is going to work," the MagnaAngemon placed his hand on the ground. "_Viral Seal_!" In a big burst of light a sphere appeared and began expanding. Tye slammed into and was unable to push past it. Upon seeing this they all rushed the sphere hoping to stop it or derail the attack. However, when Tak touched it he passed right through it.

"Tak!" Matty called. Upon realizing he slipped through Tak turned back around to see the sphere had stopped shining and took up the entire building rooftop. The others were on the other side of the bubble unable to pass through. Tye kept pounding on the bubble with his fist, and Matty launched missile after missile at it. However, it seemed like the combined might of two megas was not enough to push past it. "Tak get out of there!"

"You'll find that quite impossible," the MagnaAngemon stepped forward pulling out his purple blade. "This sphere is a product of a lot of research and experimentation. I developed it myself. You have no idea how much time and effort it took to form this sphere and create a perfected MagnaAngemon,"

"What do you mean? What is this thing and what do you mean 'perfected' MaganAngemon?" MagnaAngemon rushed Tak head on forcing him to summon his staff to block the downward swipe of his sword. Tak was struggling tremendously under the might of this foe.

"Oh you poor thing, allow me to explain every detail. The sphere is a construction of pure holy energy that is completely one way. Made to capture and contain virus type Digimon,"

"But Tak's programming is Vaccine!" Angewomon exclaimed.

"No…it's not…" Iz gasped in horror.

"What are you talking about Iz?" Matty asked.

"I had never mentioned it because…well I had hoped it wouldn't be a problem. Devimon's attack on Tak did serious damage…it permanently corrupted a part of his program. This makes Tak by strict definition a Vaccine/Virus hybrid. That's why he would had such trouble staying in control for a while and why he's significantly stronger,"

"Tak's part Virus!" Wargreymon yelled in horror. No one quite understood why Wargreymon was so worried.

"He's fighting a Digimon that's powers are especially effective against viruses!" MetalGarurumon exclaims. This successfully scared them now as they began pounding on the sphere. Tak was flung against the sphere harshly. He staggered to his feet then flew upward dodging a blast from the MagnaAngemon's Excalibur.

"How did you know?" Tak asked swinging his pole downward to be blocked by the Ultimate angel.

"Please, I'm part virus part vaccine as well. I know my own kind," MagnaAngemon flung Tak through the air, but the boy caught himself as he faced his opponent.

"Well then that means we're even. My powers can work on you just as well as yours can work on me," Tak pulled back his staff. "_Hand of Fate!"_

MagnaAngemon raised his beam shield to block the attack as his feet slid against the roof. MagnaAngemon circled around the blast then rushed up into the air to stab his blade forward. He narrowly missed Tak's head as the boy dived downward. He regained his staff then blocked another downward slash. That continued clashing for a moment with Tak's staff able to fend off the blade of MagnaAngemon. Tak deflected the sword then brought his staff around the back of MagnaAngemon's legs. He pulled sharply taking the angel's feet from under him then leaped upward to drill him into the roof with a _Holy Knuckle_. A large dust cloud kicked up after the initial contact giving the viewing audience a bad case of anxiety. Once clear they could see what happened and were shocked to see MagnaAngemon had caught Tak's wrist with ease. Tak struggled to regain his freedom so he raised his other fist. However, MagnaAngemon's sword came out after being dispelled and it came out at the right angle to pierce Tak's shoulder. His bad shoulder. Tak gave a shout of pain as he tried to pull back, but the MagnaAngemon held strong. The ultimate rose to his feet then throttled Tak straight into the ground.

"Tak!" Matty yelled pounding on the barrier.

"We gotta get through somehow!" Kar exclaimed.

"The barrier keeps out all Digimon who aren't viruses," Wargreymon reiterated.

Tak's back slammed into the shield in front of his friends. He shakily got to his feet as he looked back at them. "Call…Takeru…"

"Takeru?" Matty asked with a questioned look. Before Tak could say anymore MagnaAngemon slammed his elbow into Tak's gut. MagnaAngemon then grabbed Tak by the throat then hoisted him up. "Tak!"

"I'm seriously disappointed right now. I made all this effort, and you don't even put up a decent fight,"

"What is this…perfected MagnaAngemon?" Tak gasped out.

"Yes, see all the Digimon I've made so far have been test subjects. They lacked a lot of what the originals have, what really makes them special. I could make a hundred MagnaAngemon but they'd all pale in comparison to this one. Because he is the pure representation of what an Ultimate level MagnaAngemon, born from the Crest of Hope, should be like. This is only the tip of the iceberg with what I can do now that I've officially unlocked Hope," Tak mashed his teeth. "Oh, that's right, I did in a few short days what you couldn't do in months. Must be infuriating,"

Tak summoned his staff then swung it at the angel's head, but the angel was fast as he caught it in fist before it could make contact. "Tak hang on!" Angemon exclaimed.

"How about some new advice, stop hanging on and just let go," Tak opened his eyes to stare down at the angel. "Let go…you know what I mean Tak. I know you know, just let it all go,"

"I don't know…what you're-,"

"You know that burning pain in your arm, indulge in it, lose yourself to it, and succumb to it totally. You will find yourself transformed into something new, something of your own creation," MagnaAngemon yanked Tak's staff away from him then placed a hand on Tak's bad arm. Tak began to panic because the exact place he chose was the very spot Devimon's claws struck. Then a tremendous amount of pressure was placed on his arm making Tak cry out in pain. To Matty this was the worst thing he could ever imagine, he was quickly becoming exhausted just pounding on the shield.

"Help is on the way," Iz muttered as he stopped Matty from striking the sphere. "We just have to wait right now,"

"Wait!" Matty yelled grabbing Iz. "I will not just wait with my brother screaming like that!"

"We don't have a choice Matty," Iz responded evenly. Matty mashed his teeth as he looked on to see MagnaAngemon on the verge of snapping Tak's arm right off.

"You want the pain to stop then make it!" MagnaAngemon twisted almost to the breaking point as his thumb was about to touch the back of his leg. Tak mashed his teeth as he began fighting against the hold. Suddenly black and golden energy surrounded his body.

"Angemon Level Shift…" the light blinded MagnaAngemon as he was thrown backward. When it died down in front of him stood another MagnaAngemon. Though Tak's form was different since his wings are black and so is his helmet, but everything else is the same between the two. Except the obvious of Tak being shorter. "MagnaAngemon!"

"No way…" the others muttered.

Tak unsheathed a blade from his right arm that was as dark as midnight. "Way,"

"Well, now things might start getting interesting," MagnaAngemon said showing his blade.

"I'm inclined to agree," came another voice. MagnaAngemon was slow to react as a powerful blast nailed him in the back throwing him to the ground. MagnaAngemon flew up to avoid another few blasts to face the new opposition. "A perfected MagnaAngemon huh we'll see about that,"

"Always into challenges I see," came another voice outside the sphere behind the Digidestined of 2099. They turned to see a battered Takeru walk over to them. His arm is in a sling with bandages on his face and a slight limp. "Here I am, back in 2099,"

"Whoa…" Kar gasped at seeing Takeru. She was slightly blown away with the fact of seeing another Tak for the first time. She noticed that he was only slightly older then Tak, possibly nine or ten.

"The back-up you told us about?" Tye questioned looking at the battered form of Takeru. "He looks pretty beaten up…and that look is so retro…"

Takeru's eyes narrowed. "Don't let my look fool you, I could totally wreck everyone here. But of course that's not the issue at hand. Iz told me I needed to be here, and I went against a lot of orders to show up. So a little gratitude wouldn't hurt,"

"Shock… a temperamental Tak at that," Wargreymon muttered.

"He was the best choice to help. His Digimon is also a hybrid of Vaccine and Virus," Iz explained. He didn't want to admit it, but he was a little thrown at seeing Takeru standing as tall as him.

"You neglected to mention that Tak Digivolved," Takeru said as he stared at the battle. The four of them were quite stumped with the term Takeru used but assumed he meant Level Shifting. HolyAngemon and Tak were doing a successful job and fighting the MagnaAngemon off, but the battle looked slow going. This perfected MagnaAngemon was a lot more powerful than either every expected.

"He just did we're just as surprised," Kar answered.

Takeru frowned. He knew his Digimon could heal faster than him, but that didn't mean he was fully recovered. Tak didn't look so good either as he seemed to be in a lot of pain. "This won't be easy,"

The three angels smashed together in a stalemate as they all went flying back with Tak and HolyAngemon side by side. "He's…really strong," HolyAngemon gasped.

"I had no idea he was this powerful. That means…he was toying with me the entire time up till now. I feel like we're gonna need more help," Tak said.

"Unlikely, since with this bubble no one can else can get in," Tak's MagnaAngemon added.

"I can't Sacred Digivolve with Takeru because he cannot pass through the bubble,"

"Then we must work together then, MagnaAngemon full synchronization," Tak said. At his words Tak's outline began glowing a golden hue. HolyAngemon smirked as he unsheathed both his blood red blades from both forearms. They both rush the single MagnaAngemon head on as it took a defensive position.

"_Soul Vanisher!_" MagnaAngemon swung his sword decimating everything in its path. It was too big and fast to avoid.

"_Warping Gate!"_ Tak called tackling HolyAngemon. There was an explosion that followed after the blast as a dust cloud covered the area. When it cleared there was no sign of either of them. MagnaAngemon doubted that single attack could get rid of them that easily. Suddenly, a gate appeared before him and it opened. He braced himself to plant himself firmly on the ground to prevent being sucked in. However, he was surprised when Tak and HolyAngemon came out.

"What the-,"

"_Holy Virus!"_ They both exclaimed. Tak swung his sword to unleash a black crescent wave, and HolyAngemon released a golden crescent wave. They worked together to form an X that slammed into MagnaAngemon's chest. The blast was too powerful for even this powerhouse of an angel to overcome. The dark energy was overpowering his holy qualities, and the holy qualities were giving him pain because of his viral qualities. In a moment's notice MagnaAngemon was destroyed. Tak rushed over to the portal as he retrieved the device Iz made. He pressed a button then tossed it inside after that he closed it. HolyAngemon fell to a knee trying to catch his breath.

"Not bad…" HolyAngemon muttered.

"Thanks…" Tak then collapsed to the ground as he lost his ultimate form to fall into neutral mode of having no Digimon powers. With MagnaAngemon gone the shield vanishes as the others rushed over. Matty go to his brother then lifted him into his arms.

"Tak…I'm so sorry you went through that," he said.

"It's alright…I actually feel a lot better," Tak said with a small smile. He looked over to see Takeru consoling HolyAngemon. "Thanks for coming to my rescue,"

"Yeah, us hybrids gotta stick together after all right," Takeru said with a small smile. Matty nods his thanks as well and flies away with Tye and Kar right behind him. Takeru sighed as turned to open a dimensional portal with his earpiece. "You said you had a question for me also?" Takeru asked with his back to Iz who remained behind.

"Tak said he's been hearing Chronomon in his head…I'm curious to know if you've had the same problem,"

HolyAngemon's gaze turned to Takeru sharply upon hearing this. "You have haven't you?" he questioned.

"Sure I have," Takeru admitted. "He's taunting me… trying to get me to-,"

"To what?" Iz asked upon realizing he cut himself off.

"You've heard about what I did to my world I'm sure," Iz nods not seeming that set off about it. "He's trying to get me to do it all over again. It's getting harder and harder to resist. I don't know what he's trying to do with us Iz but I know one thing. We're experiments to him, the four of us. He wants to make us into something, and seeing Tak evolve like that I know for a fact he's before his time. Don't let this victory fool you, its hollow, because even when we win, we still lose," Takeru left it at that as he and HolyAngemon stepped into the portal.

"Then it's time we move to the offensive," Iz said flying up into the air.


End file.
